God Save the Children
by Jennifer Darknight
Summary: After surviving the destruction of their home, Miles Prower, Amy Rose, and Cream the Rabbit hide amongst the denizens of Knothole for Sanctuary; five years later, they are thrust into a conflict that will change the world forever.  -Sonic SatAM AU-
1. Introduction: God Save the Children

**Title: **God save the Children

**Fandom:** Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM + SegaSonic + Fleetway)

**Characters:** Main Cast, but mostly Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, Knuckles the Echidna, and Tikal.

**Pairings: **Sonic x Sally, future Tails x Amy, onesided Amy x Sonic.

**Genre:** Adventure / Friendship

**Summary:** After surviving the destruction of their home, Miles Prower, Amy Rose, and Cream the Rabbit hide amongst the denizens of Knothole for Sanctuary; five years later, they are thrust into a conflict that is beyond Robotnik—a conflict that will change the world forever. (Sonic SatAM AU)

* * *

**_"The servers are the seven chaos.  
__Chaos is power,  
__Power enriched by the heart.  
__The controller is the one that unifies the chaos."_**

_ ~Ancient Poem, Origin Unknown._

* * *

_Millennia ago, the Planet Mobius had been a peaceful world, at one with nature and the forces around it. Beauty abundant, it was as though it was a paradise for the inhabitants, allowing for much natural resources, bustling economies, and flourishing trade. Nations walked abreast other nations, and races intermingled and spoke with one another as one, thinking not of species or creed but as brothers, and the brotherhood of them thus as Mobians. _

_ One of these many races was the Echidna. A proud people, they lived on what is now known as the Mysterious Angel Island, which was blessed with miraculous powers. Ancient Artefacts, as old as the Planet itself, resided there, but none dared disturb them or attempt to use their power. Rather, though they trained themselves as warriors, they lived in peace. _

_ The "Angel Island" was not even an island then. _

_ Years passed, centuries passed, and soon my Grandmother died, and my father, Pachacamac, was brought to power. At first, he was a kind and compassionate man, willing to do what was best for the people..._

_ But upon my mother's death, he changed. Gone was the kind father I had known, and he transformed into something else entirely—a warmonger, wishing nothing more than domination over the other Echidna tribes, destroying them one by one with intense military might. _

_ Soon, it was not a surprise that he had wished to turn to the ancient artefacts, what my Grandmother had called the "Seven Chaos", to bolster his own power. He had gone to the Shrine, faced the Shrine Keeper and tried to take the power for himself. I tried to stop him, but I was cast aside where I stood, the innocent keepers of the Chaos slaughtered. _

_ The Shrine Keeper grew angry, and the slaughter began. Hundreds were left to die, and much of my brethren was slain overnight...I was certain that if something was not done, all would be lost. _

_ With what little strength I had left, at the expense of my body, I begged the Master Emerald, the Mediator of the Chaos, to seal away the Keeper, never to allow him to harm anyone again. _

_ And so it had been and shall be. The Master Emerald heard my plea, but the weight of our Sins was too great. What was once our great home was lifted into the sky, becoming "Angel Island", forcing what was left of us to repent and guard that which we had forsaken and taken for granted, in hopes that the Shrine Keeper would never be released. _

_ It was then that what we called the Seven Chaos was scattered to the winds, one of which falling on a small Island off the coast of the Mainland. Redubbed "Chaos Emeralds", they were but a legend for treasure-seekers, though none had been able to find them._

_ Not even me._

_ With the Emeralds away from their resting place, the world was set out of Balance. Dr. Julian Robotnik claimed the once-eternal Kingdom of Mobotropolis, twisting it into a robotic monstrosity that leeched the life of the planet. Wars broke out, people made bids for power, and many searched for the wayward emeralds—those who believed in the legends, at any rate. Most dismissed them as a fairy tale. None found them. _

_ None but one. A single woman who had taken it home for her barely-infant son, with no knowledge of the power she had held in her hand. Such a pure and selfless deed, not knowing what she had condemned herself and her son to, as certainly she would have left it as it was if she had known. _

_ Five years ago, as expected, the island that served as this Emerald's resting place was set aflame, and three children—including the unwitting bearer of the Emerald—left it, not knowing that the stone they so coveted was that which the marauders had sought._

_ So shall it be, it has begun. With one found, others would follow, and they would never know peace, so long as they hold that which so many seek. _

_ God Save the Children, for they have caused the Wheel of Fate to turn. _

_ God Save the Children, for only they can bring together the Seven Chaos. _

_ God Save the Children, for only they shall bring the world to Harmony once again._


	2. Prologue: Restless Dreams

** Prologue: **

** Restless Dreams**

* * *

**Time: **Five years ago, Saturday, 1:37.

**Place: **Knothole Village, Hut of Princess Sally Acorn.

* * *

"Are they asleep?"

"Yeah, finally. Wasn't as bad as last night, at least."

"Poor things."

"...They're safe here now, though, right? They were lucky."

"...Yeah."

For the past few days, this was how it was. Hedgehog and Squirrel sat across an empty table, occasionally glancing towards a back room where the small bodies of three children—a tiny rabbit, no older than a year, nestled between a fox not much larger than herself, and a pink hedgehog who made sure to keep her spines away from her bedmates—fitfully slept, faces obscured by the darkness. Silence, with the cicadas and the occasional scream breaking long periods of monotony, leading at least one of them to placate which of the three refugees had decided to cry out for the moment.

It had been unusually quiet tonight.

"What are we going to do with them?" Brown fingers drummed against the tabletop, eleven year old eyes, now seeming so much older, didn't even look over at the green ones of her companion, almost avoiding him altogether.

"What do you mean, Sal? We just keep them here, end of story."

"End of story?" Princess Sally Acorn shook her head, glaring down towards her lap. "Sonic, this is a _war_. The mothers and children were sent out of the village for a _reason. _We barely avoided getting sent out ourselves!"

"Yeah?" The hedgehog straight across shook his head in return, green eyes shooting daggers. "And look how well _that_ contingency plan turned out. Kids' Island's trashed, and for all we know, those kids're the only survivors. If we leave 'em behind, we're no better than the bird-brains that nuked the place."

"I know." She let out a sigh. "I know. I just..."

"There's gotta be more people from there, that we just haven't found yet." Brave words, though the hedgehog's eyes didn't seem to believe it all that much. "Kids' Island's not big, but there had to be more than one town in it, right? Maybe we'll get some more people comin' in the next few days. We gotta."

Sally nodded. Stray fingers brushed the mane of red hair out of her eyes, for what good it did her; all it did was fall back down over her face anyway. "Yeah...I hope you're right, Sonic. I really do."

"You ever doubted the ol' Hedgehog before?" At least his attempts at levity gave her a smile—for a moment at least.

"Don't make me answer that." Any cheeriness in her eyes disappeared; the heaviness was back in full force, and Sally was sitting right on it. The kids were safe, they were in a place where nobody could hurt them. This was a good thing. But why was it that with any good thing, so many questions had to follow it?

"Still," The children were still sleeping. Good. Any movement from them and this conversation would have to end, and fast. "What could they have wanted? What was so important that they had to destroy the entire island, even chasing the last inhabitants onto the mainland?"

"Whatever reason it is," Sonic said, "They ran away pretty quick after I showed up."

"It would be nice if we had some sort of clue," Sally admitted. "At least so we can prevent them from coming back."

"What kind of clue would there be? The only things that the kids came with were the clothes on their back, and some yellow rock that the fox kid kept carryin'."

Wait. What? "Yellow Rock?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. Ant tried to take it off of him, sayin' it was some weird precious stone and it wasn't meant for kids or whatever. The kids all yelled at him, and the pink one even tried hittin' him with her huge hammer. I broke it up, but none of 'em talked to anyone after that."

"Precious stone?" She was going to have to have a serious _talk_ with Antoine later. "That's odd. Cocoa Island isn't known for having any precious stones. What did it look like?"

"Not like any rock I've ever seen, that's for sure." Sonic leaned back and closed his eyes. "It was bigger 'n' the kid's hand, and it glowed a lot. It sorta looked like the Power Rock in the Power Ring machine."

"Glowed..." Well, it could be...Not normal rocks glowed, if Sonic was telling the truth. Even if he wasn't the most intellectual being on Mobius, one thing you could count on was his memory. "It might be a Power Stone. There were plenty on Cocoa Island in the underground mines, though due to the dangers of mining them, they stopped the practice years ago."

"D'you think-?"

"No, that couldn't be it." Sally shook her head. "It's true that Power Stones could be mined there...but why would the Battlebirds chase a woman and three children for a single Power Stone, when there were plenty on the Island to take once everyone was dead? And for that matter, why didn't they just enslave the people to just mine the stones for them? Why the drastic actions? And this is only if what he has really _is_ a Power Stone in the first place. None of it adds up."

"So that means," Sonic groaned, opening his eyes, "We're right back on square one."

"It looks that way."

Sighs all around, and the children—children, but so far from the tender years their bodies so implied—shook their heads, letting the heaviness in the air hit them hard. Sleepless nights, coupled with planning meetings, unsuccessful missions, and...and _this_ over their heads, hadn't made it easy, and with everything else on their hands, it was just another problem.

But was it? Sally couldn't help but feel the sick tension lurching in her stomach. This was a sign, wasn't it? Not a good sign, but a sign nonetheless. Cocoa Island had been the last stronghold for the refugees, if Knothole fell; The children were to lead normal lives there, hopefully allowing the land to form a self-sufficient economy, to bring supplies to the Resistance during the war to keep their food supply up and allow the village to focus on fighting Robotnik. The tactic of sending supplies via sea was risky, though, and had proven the downfall of many fearless Mobians more than once.

Sally had known that it was a gamble—they all did. But at the time, they had very little choice, seeing as it wasn't her who made any of the decisions.

But that was then. Elias had been the one in charge; but along with Rosemary, Amadeus, Emily, and many others...

Luckily, the leadership vacuum sealed quickly, before any real dissent could be given. Though this was only part of the main problem, the final problem, which seemed to reveal itself through this tragedy.

Cocoa Island, the Sanctuary of the Mobotropolis Refugees, had been attacked. Not by Robotnik, not even influenced by him...but by a group of birds who had aimed to raze and pillage the place. It was a mistake to trust a small location to be completely protected, to exist as a nestegg for the main front during the war without repercussions or any real defenses, and this was just the tip of the iceberg. The old ways of the Freedom Fighters needed to be changed, the old contingency plans needed to be re-evaluated and rewritten. Otherwise, something like this would happen again, and more oversights would be punished. Not by the Battlebirds, not by any stray brigands...but by something worse, something far more sinister.

But...more importantly...

"I can't take away their childhood." She said after a moment. "Not after all they've lost."

"Who says that we have to?" Sonic leaned back in his chair again, shaking his head. "They can help out in other things—I dunno, build stuff or fish or something when they get older. For now, let 'em be kids, and do what kids do!"

A chuckle, though a hollow one. "I'm not sure Amadeus would like it too much if he found out that we made his only son out to be a _farmer_."

"Amadeus? Say _what_?" The hedgehog's eyes were so clueless it almost made Sally want to slap him upside the head. Almost. "You mean that fox kid is—?"

"He's Rosemary and Amadeus's son. Couldn't you tell? Rosemary had told us herself that her son was born with an extra tail." Sally shouldn't have smiled at the wide-eyed expression of disbelief on Sonic's face, but she couldn't help herself, "And the little girl is Emily Rose's daughter."

"Ol' Man Prower's kid _and_ Em Rose's girl? Geez, it's almost like a backwards reunion."

"I know what you mean. Strange, seeing that..."

"...Yeah." Sonic finished, "Talk about mondo bad timing."

And then silence once again reigned between them, two children in their own thoughts as they sat in their respective chairs, the blue staring up towards the ceiling while the brown stared down towards her lap.

Minutes passed. Minutes led to more minutes, and minutes may have led to hours—it was hard to tell which. The cool breeze just felt so good against her fur, and with all the long hours she'd spent awake...

_Maybe it's okay to close my eyes for a few minutes..._

* * *

"Um. Mister Sonic?"

Whatever sleep Sonic the Hedgehog could have gained, coupled with dreams of Chili-dogs and better days, probably peppered with the occasional nightmare had been torn apart from him, almost wincing as he felt a small finger poke one of his quills.

"OW!"

Glancing down, he frowned, meeting pained baby blues. The bushy orange fur, the chubby body that looked more like a strangely misshapen stuffed animal (his head almost looked too big for the rest of him, and his legs too short; was this how all foxes looked when they were small?) than anything sentient, the two fluffy tails fanning out behind him...Amadeus and Rosemary Prower's son, Miles, stared up at him. The poor thing looked like he'd been dragged out of a tumble-drier with his fur sticking up in all directions, and he held his injured finger with a mixture of confusion and irritation on his face.

"Careful there, little buddy," Sonic said, "They're sorta sharp."

"Sorry." Came the mumbled reply. "I'll remember next time."

Green eyes stared into blue ones. Blue ones simply stared right back.

_Yeesh, _Sonic thought, shaking his head, _If it couldn't get any more awkward..._

"So uh, you needed me for somethin, uh...Miles, right?"

The fox jumped. His eyes widened while his fur stood up, and his tails slapped hard against the floor.

"Um, Tails!" a pause, and then the fox started again, "Um, I mean...call me Tails, if that's all right with you, Mister Sonic. Everyone else does."

"I'll call you Tails," Sonic sighed, "So long as you stop callin' me 'Mister'. I'm not that much older than you, kid."

"Sorry...Didn't mean to upset you."

He thought he was upset? Sonic raised an eyebrow. Embarrassed, the kit stepped back, tapping his foot and tails against the floor almost in an attempt to hide the redness forming on his cheeks.

What would Sally or Bunnie do if they were in this situation?

_Oh, what the heck. I can wing this. How hard can it be?_

"C'mon, you didn't upset me. Takes a whole lot more than that to get the ol' Hedgehog up in a tissy. Now what'd you want to talk about?"

Relief, realization, and seriousness crossed the features all at once, and the kit's eyes changed sizes almost in a fraction of a second. Small, larger, then small again, though it was hard to take a serious expression seriously when the one throwing it out looked little more than an orange pompom with two tails twitching around behind him.

"Ummm...are you gonna kick us out?"

"Kick you out?" Was the little tyke listening in on his and Sally's conversation? And if he was, how much did he hear? "Now where'd you get a crazy idea like that?"

"Well," if scrunching his face up in a nearly comical fashion Tails's version of a 'thinking' face, then Sonic might not last two weeks with this kid without eventually cracking up at it. "I heard you an' the lady talkin'."

_Great. How much did he hear?_

"The lady just worries about you and your friends, squirt. It's not like she doesn't want you around, and we're totally not going to kick you out."

"Really? You won't kick us out? 'Cause um. I can handle being alone, honest, but Amy an' Cream might not like it 'cause they're girls, you know. They get emotional and stuff." He had to be lucky that Sally wasn't listening in; the one time Sonic threw a comment like _that_, he was _still_ hearing her lectures weeks later. Yeesh, anger, thy name is woman indeed. Though something said that it wasn't Amy and Cream (Amy was the hedgehog's name, and Cream was the rabbit's name, right?) that he was really worried about. "An' she's worried 'cause of mean ol' Robotnik, huh? 'Cause you're fighting a war against him and stuff, and don't want us to get hurt."

If this was what being a parent was like, remind him to run as far away from relationships as he possibly could. Stepping out of the chair, Sonic nodded, kneeling down in front of the kit to meet his eyes.

"That's about the size of it, Tails. Robotnik's one mean guy, and has done a lot of bad things to everyone, but don't you worry. We'll get him."

"Is he meaner than the birds?"

"Mondo-meaner."

"That's...that's really scary." The little kid even gave a good shudder for effect. Not that anyone could blame him; with those bird-brains that had blown up his home, it was probably hard to believe that anyone was worse than that. "But um...Can I do it, too? Help you make Robotnik go away?" Was Sonic giving him the stink-eye without realizing it? Because the kit sure seemed to backpedal fast. "I mean, when I'm bigger."

"We'll see what happens." With a ruffle of the head-fur, there even seemed to be a tiny smile coming out of the kit.

...The first real smile he had since he got here. It was a start, at least.

"But you should probably get to bed. It's late."

"I can't stay up with you?" Tails asked. He tilted his head to the side, and his blue eyes had _just_ that amount of disappointed curiosity...man, if he'd learned to master that look when he was a kid, he'd have never had to worry about getting in trouble when he accidentally broke something of Uncle Chuck's. Yeesh. Talk about a master of persuasion.

"'Fraid not. Besides, even grownups need their sleep."

"You're not sleeping." The fox said.

"I'm not sleepin', but I will be soon, Big Guy." He hoped. Oh, did he hope.

Tails simply watched him, taking it all in. He looked up, then down, then side to side, then scrunched his face in that weird serious expression of his before staring down again.

_What the..._

The kid's head jerked up, and he gave him a smile. "Okay."

Tails turned around to leave, only to stop. As quickly as his pause had come, a ball of fur and tails rushed forward.

"Woah!"

So that hope of being able to sit back down on the chair? No dice; Sonic had lost any balance he might have had, and he fell to the ground with a bundle of orange grappling onto him.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three.

"Uh..."

"Oh! Uh...right." Tails jumped to his feet and let out a hasty "Good night!" before turning sharp on his heel and dashing to the others, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could.

"What am I going to do with you..."

Something told Sonic, as he crawled back into a chair and moved his eyes to the now shut door, that this wasn't going to be the last time he said that.

* * *

**Time: **Five years ago, Wednesday, 14:44.

**Place: **Outskirts of Knothole Village, the "Great Forest".

* * *

He had always heard that when you ran as fast as you could, legs pumping for speed and adrenaline rushing through your head, you lost any real sense of reason. All you lived for was the chase, the feeling of the wind past your face, the freedom that came with the ground moving under your feet.

Nothing else mattered, nothing else existed.

Well, there was also that other wise man...that wise man that was much more morbid, who had said that if you were in a state of panic, your life in danger and the world burning around you, the only thing you _could_ do was run. And run they did; three bodies dashed through the forest paths at the greatest speed they could manage, barely avoiding the cackling laughter and green feathered bodies most definitely hot on their heels.

They must have been going for miles, all options long since exhausted as the burning wreckage of their escape vehicle sat at the coast, hours away. All of the paths felt the same, leaves sitting on trees, branches scratching against their long-exhausted arms and legs as they raced past. The sun was blinding, the natural beauty of the foliage and flowers long-since ignored, and the slight scent of oil in the air completely disregarded, even to the young fox's sensitive nose.

They had to keep running.

Had to keep moving...couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop.

Miles Prower tried not to consider his heaving chest, his burning legs, or the shrill screaming of the baby in his oldest companion's arms; the path was still going, and not a settlement in sight. But surely there had to be someone...anyone. This forest couldn't have been uninhabited. Vanilla had said that there used to be plenty of settlements and colonists here, so surely they all couldn't have—

_No way, Prower,_ he chastised himself, surely a miracle with the fog that was already hazing his mind, _You can't think like that. There has to be someone here. Has to be—we can't be alone. We can't be the only ones here, or else that means—!_

"Give it up!" the shrieking voice screeched behind them, "There's no use in trying to escape!"

He had to stop shaking. Even running, his shoulders were out of control—if he lost it, he'd trip at any second.

None of them could afford that.

"You won't get us alive!" He wasn't sure if that was his elder rabbit companion, or the pink hedgehog that had said it, but either way, the voice behind him could only laugh.

"Funny, I had no intention of it!"

The whizz of something hot and quick ran by his ear. With a scream he jumped back, alarmed, and the ground in front of him burst into flame, rocks slamming against him and clacking against the trees.

Just a step back, then keep running-

A step _back_, not a fall back! The other two were still up, but weren't going to run until-

Oh heck, his leg, it burned, it burned, it _hurt_, he couldn't move it, he could barely move—

"Tails, come on! Get up!"

With a firm pink hand under his armpit, he was hoisted to his feet, and limping against his savior as fast as he could go, the chase was still on.

"You could have left me," he heard himself shout with more bravery than his quivering body actually felt, "You and Vanilla and Cream need to—"

"NO!" His assistant growled back, though in hindsight it sounded more like a tearful hiccup than an actual growl, "We're not leaving you! We're going to stick together, get away, and then go home again, okay?"

"Get home?" One of their pursuers let out an amused crow. "Surely you jest! The only things you will be coming home in are body bags!"

A clicking sound, a sound of something like a feminine scream...

Something slammed against him, something hard, and he and his pink companion were thrown to the ground, a warm body wrapped on top of them—

His leg hurt, he couldn't move, he couldn't see—

But his hands—something wet was on his hands. And on his face. Wet and warm and sticky, and Oh _God_, that wasn't—

That wasn't—!

* * *

**Time: **Present Day, Wednesday, 2:34.

**Place: **Knothole Village, Residential area.

* * *

"NO!"

The room that met him was silent, darkness covering everything save for the small strips of moonlight that shone through the window and pooled onto the covers of his bed. Tinkertoys and small planes sat on their assigned shelves on the far wall with another set with much more feminine articles nearby in a much more organized fashion, sitting alongside one another as though it was normal, meant to be there. There was the bookshelf to the left, filled with various tomes of all sizes and types (though certainly small—one did not expect a ten year old to be fascinated and able to sit fixated on books alone), and even the nightstand with the familiar book of fairy tales for convenient bedside readings (The chair hadn't even been moved, either) was left untouched.

The young fox, shoulders still shaking, breaths shallow and quick, turned to look to his right: the other bed was there, and its sole occupant was curled into her comforter, sleeping away.

There was no scent of blood, no stickiness on his face or the feeling of a wounded (_dying, she was dying—no, don't even think about that_) rabbit on his body as she shielded him, her baby, and his roommate from the coming fire, or the cruel taunts of their pursuers behind them. There was no forest, no path, no wounded leg, and no bleeding, throbbing scratches that left rusty imprints on his fur.

All was still. All was normal.

All was _safe_.

"...That stupid dream again." he mumbled.

Miles Prower, often called "Tails" by his closest friends and companions, let out a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself and slow his trembling, wiping the still-flowing tears from his eyes and flopping down on his back on the bed.

How many times had he had this dream?

* * *

_"AAAGH!" _

_ The blood, it was everywhere. On his face, on his hands—he couldn't see Amy...was it on her, too? Vanilla was on top of all three of them, larger body shivering and shaking as she let out wet coughs, spraying more of that red stuff on his fur. _

_ Cream was nestled in her arms, safe from danger, but whimpering just the same. What seemed to be a bloody spot on her gut and chest was bleeding, and bleeding fast; she had to have kept the baby under the crook of her arm before she leapt forward—but was that even possible? It was a split-second movement; the leap of a mother who had tried to protect not only her children, but all the children..._

_ Wait, did that mean—_

_ Tails started shaking. _

_ They had to go. They had to keep running—Vanilla would get up soon, right? __**Right**__? Cream was okay, he and Amy were okay, so they had to get going! They had to move or else—!_

_ "Vanilla...?" he heard himself croak, but it wasn't quite certain that it was his own voice coming out..._

* * *

_No, no, no!_ He couldn't think about it—wouldn't think about it. Tails shook his head firmly, all but forcing the images out._ I should be over this by now! _

He was ten years old—not quite an adult, but most certainly old enough to not look back on memories like a baby. Sonic had always said that it was important to look towards the future, rather than cling to the past and worry about the things that could have been, should have been...

_If I hadn'ta tripped..._

No. He wouldn't even go to that line of thinking—last time he did that...well. Amy was forced to grab Sonic and Sally, and then things just kept getting embarrassing from there...and that was only a year and a half ago.

"You always told me not to worry; a Freedom Fighter never lets his fear get the best of him, and always stays calm."

And he was calm. Sort of. Grown-ups stayed calm—kids didn't.

"Well, 'm not a kid anymore," he whispered to himself, "...so I don't have to worry about that. I'll just go back to sleep..."

Yeah, sleep. Sleep was nice. A relaxing rest, with probably some better dreams. Anything to make him think of something else—

"...Tails? You okay?"

_So much for that_, the fox thought with a grimace at the female voice. He let out a noise as he rolled to the left and stared at the door.

"Tails, I know you're awake."

A sigh, and shuffling, as though his roommate was sitting up.

Well, good for her. He wasn't going to.

"No, I'm not. 'M just a dream, Amy. Go back to sleep."

"Ha-ha." Even though he didn't see her, Tails was certain that the pink hedgehog, Amy Rose, was rolling her eyes. "Very funny."

"Of course I am—but it'll be even funnier when I'm awake first and getting breakfast in the morning before you, because you slept in and thought I was awake in the middle of the night."

"But you _are_ awake. And you're _shaking_."

"Am not."

"To which one?"

"Both."

Another sigh. "You can't fool me, Miles Prower." She paused, probably feeling pleased with herself at how Tails bristled with her mentioning of his real name, the jerk. Amy always did her best to make him mad, it seemed. "You...dreamt about it too, didn't you?"

So much for that idea (still, being proved wrong was actually a little comforting this time). Even though she couldn't see it he nodded, expelling a shuddering breath.

"...Yeah."

He clutched his knees, trying to stop the inevitable shaking and the hot wetness that still stung his eyes, even as he heard his companion shuffle further in the bed, the pattering of bare feet as they hit the floor.

"C'mon." Amy said, "Scooch over."

"No way."

He tried to ignore the little shove she gave him, but the girl really knew her own strength. And Tails was just her friend; he hated to see how rough she got when she was around _Sonic—_the fact that she sometimes chased him with her hammer was worrisome enough.

"Come _on._"

"Nuh-uh! You got your bed, and I got mine."

"Well, I don't want to sleep in mine, so move _over_!"

"H-hey! Why don't you go and sleep with Sonic or something?"

"Ugh! Just stop wiggling around!"

He tried to squirm to the right, but it was no use. Firm hands gripped his arms and pushed him forwards, the feeling of another warm body pressing against his two tails as the hedgehog practically forced herself under the covers.

"Amy," he groaned, "You're hurtin' me. We don't have room."

"Yeah we do, just curl your tails around you. Like this."

"OW! You sat on one!"

"Did not! Here, like—this. There. How about that?"

"You still didn't have to crawl in here."

"Well I did, so there. You should feel honored—normally I save this for my darling Sonic, but since it's you I'll make an exception."

"Didn't know honor was so painful..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing..."

Thankfully he didn't feel a pair of little arms wrap around him—rather, the feeling of a forehead pressed against his shoulderblades, and that was all. No hugging, no kneeing his back, and nothing that he would feel embarrassed to think about in the morning.

"...Amy?" He asked after a moment.

"Mmm-hmm?"

_Do you think Vanilla is mad at us, wherever she is?_

"Nothin'. Don't worry about it."

He could feel the nod of a pink head behind him, softened quills tickling his fur.

"Okaaay. Good night, Tails."

"G'night."

Tails hugged his tails close to himself (and no, he most certainly _wasn't_ feeling much better now, nor was he feeling much calmer than before, because he wasn't upset in the first place thankyouverymuch) and shook his head, resting himself against the familiar bunches of fur and closing his eyes.

He was asleep in minutes.


	3. Chapter One: Lost in the Woods

**Author's Note: **Wow; almost two weeks and I'm already done with chapter one, and it's almost as long as both the prologue and introduction combined. I've been doing the beta-ing myself, so I apologize if there are any weird errors I missed, or if there's some strange formatting mistakes that I didn't grab in time. This is my first serious fic in the Sonic fandom, so I'm still a little bit nervous about how this is going to go. Also, a warning about the French in this chapter: My word processor doesn't let me put on accents on French words, so just ignore the lack of accents and please forgive me if my French sucks; it's been YEARS since I've really used it.

Also, this Chapter takes place before Sonic SatAM Episode 2: "Sonic Boom".

* * *

**Chapter One: **

**Lost In the Woods**

**

* * *

**

**Time: **Present Day, Friday, 10:19.

**Place: **Knothole Village, Tails and Amy's room.

* * *

"HeybigguyI'mgonnahideinhereokaycoolbye!"

If one wasn't used to the normal morning antics in Knothole village, it would have been pretty rude for your ultra-cool big brother to run in your room at the speed of light and hide under your bed in a span of five seconds, barely taking the time to even tell you 'hello' and 'toodle-oo'. What, not even a wave? A 'how you doing'?

Well, when a guy was chased by a girl half his size who kept trying to drag him into the throes of matrimony, there were priorities that needed to be kept. Major priorities; enough to where the only reaction the room's once-sole occupant gave to this sudden intrusion was wrap his arms around his materials on the desk so they wouldn't fly away with the sudden...ahem, breeze that decided to let himself in.

Just another morning in Knothole, and just another morning where Miles Prower had to protect his valuables (this time in the form of a small metal...fox..._thing_ on the desk with some papers with numbers on them sitting nearby) from being whisked away by an impromptu Sonic-tornado.

"You know, Sonic," he said, picking up the screwdriver. Nothing new to see here...back to work. "She's going to find your hiding spot eventually."

"Shhhh! Not so loud, Big Guy!" Sonic hissed; though Tails wasn't facing him, he was sure that his hero's head was sticking out from under the bed frame, throwing him a _look_. "She's comin'!"

"Nah." Maybe if he tightened the screw around the leg, it wouldn't hang so loosely when it moved. Wasn't that what Rotor did with Bunnie's leg when he repaired it? "Amy won't be in here for another thirty seconds."

"Well that's thirty seconds enough to hide. Whatever you do, don't tell her I'm here!"

"Sure thing, Sonic."

Turn the right bolt on the leg, tighten the screw on the left foot...and then after the legs were finished he had to test the mechanics inside. If it didn't move, it meant that he was going to have to fix some of the internal wiring, and the only way he was going to do that was to borrow some extra parts from Rotor—

_Stomp. Stomp. Stompstompstompstompstomp__**STOMP—**_

"Pink Tornado closing in," Tails sighed. "ETA five, four, three, two—"

The bedroom door swung open with a hard crack and slammed against the wall, a force that hardly belied the young girl with her arms crossed in the doorway. Pink quills stood at attention along her spine, green eyes intense and focused, but that green dress with the pink skirt added a touch of silliness—just that little something that made it difficult to take the display seriously.

...Of course, this was before she started talking.

"TAILS!" Amy stomped into the room, obnoxiously large pink hammer in hand. Her gaze darted across, left and right, but never seemed to settle on the one place where the hedgehog always seemed to hide, without fail. "Have you seen my darling Sonic?"

Just another day.

"Nuh-uh." It was really amazing how easy it was to lie to her about this—maybe it should have been little worrying. "Haven't seen him. Why? Did he ditch you again?"

"He did _not_ ditch me!" The girl's hammer landed on the floor with a dull _thud_, and hands moved back to her hips. "I'll have you know, Sonic and I are deeply in love!"

"Could have fooled me." Tails snorted. "Looks to me like he's _avoiding_ you."

If that girl stomped on the floor any harder, she was going to get her foot through it. "He's not avoiding me! He's just shy!"

"Shy? _Sonic_?" He _really_ shouldn't have sounded that incredulous. This was _Amy Rose_ talking; when it came to one particular subject (said subject hiding under his bed for dear life), logic flew out the window and was replaced with something else—something _stupid_. "Sonic isn't _shy_!"

"Well, it can happen! I mean, why else would he be running away from me?"

"Maybe 'cause he's got other stuff to do?" Tighten the bolt, test the limbs...don't think about the hard glare that Amy was giving him, though if he was facing her, it would have probably been impossible. That girl probably could have sent Robotnik cowering if she was mad enough, and he was _scary_. "Aunt Sally said that they were gonna go and trash a Swatbot factory tonight."

"No fair—they're always telling _you_ when they go out! Why don't they tell _me_ anything?"

The stomp this time was weaker than usual; it didn't carry its usual oomph, and it was more like...well. It was more like a ten-year-old girl had stomped on the ground with a single tennishoed foot, rather than if _Amy Rose_ had stomped on the ground with a single tennishoed foot. Tails raised an eyebrow and glanced back.

If she had any expression belying anything other than blatant irritation it was gone, and the hedgehog bent over to pick up her hammer again.

"Well, Aunt Sally says that I'm reliable. Maybe she's just worried about you or somethin'."

"I just think she likes _you_ better," Amy said.

"No way! She likes you, too!"

"Nuh-_uh_." The hedgehog stomped her foot again; Tails turned fully around, almost ready to get out of his seat. Luckily she didn't notice the blue hedgehog crawling out from under the bed, mouthing a 'thank you' before he hopped out of the window and moving out of sight.

"Yuh-huh!"

"Nuh-uh! She always tells you everything, and gets mad when I try to help, but she's okay when _you_ do it! What can you do that I can't do?"

"...Ummmm...fly?" He offered.

Amy's right eye twitched.

"Besides, you're always sneakin' out all the time! Maybe if you stopped, they'd take you more seriously."

Green met blue. Blue met green.

Despite the clenching and unclenching of a fist, and Amy's foot tapping against the wooden floor, there was nothing but silence.

He had her there, and she _knew_ it.

Tails let out a sigh and turned around in his seat, moving back to his work, but Amy's voice broke whatever quiet that could have formed in the air.

"You still workin' on that robot-thing?"

"It's not a 'robot-thing'." The fox shook his head, "It's Mecha Tails Mark II."

"Mecha Tails Mark II?" The girl moved her hand to poke at it, but thought better of it and moved her hand away. "What happened to the first one?"

"It didn't work right." More like the analog signal didn't run through when he tried to use the remote control from a long distance, and sometimes the limbs would move in the wrong directions and cause it to fall apart when performing more difficult maneuvers. He really needed to work on the remote functionality.

"Huh...Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out. You always do." A pause. There were sounds of footsteps, almost like pacing. She was probably walking across the room; right to the dresser, then to her bed, then to his chair again.

"When'll you be done?" she asked.

"I'm almost done." Now if he could just grab the back casing—where _was_ that? Half-listening he groped around his desk, feeling for the familiar smooth metal that had made the robot's exoskeleton. Once this piece was back on...

"...oon?"

Wait, what was that? Tails glanced up from his work, just enough to see the outlines of Amy's impatient face in the corner of his eye. "Huh?"

An exasperated sigh, hands placed on hips. "I _said_, 'Will you be done real, real soon?'"

"Oh, uh, sorry."

"Well?" A tap of a foot on the floor.

"Well what?" He searched for the back casing again.

"Will you be done soon?" She asked.

_Why's she in such a hurry? _He turned around fully towards her, brushing spare bits of fur out of his face. "I dunno. Maybe. Why?"

"Good." Amy Rose the Hedgehog, also known as "Rosy the Rascal" by the more wary members of Knothole, threw him one of her brightest smiles. "'Cause I gotta show you somethin' when you're done. Somethin' really, _really_ cool."

* * *

**Time: **Present Day, Friday, 11:00.

**Place:** Knothole Village, right outside the Prower-Rose residence.

* * *

-00-

_"Cream," Antoine Depardieu always seemed to hold himself with a sort of elegance and grace when he moved, Cream decided. Even when he was eating, he made sure to mind his manners, and hold his fork the proper way; he always said that it was one of the most important things for a gentleman. "Je vais le factorie de Swatbot ce soir pour la mission. D'accord?"_

_ Of course, the rabbit always made sure to follow his example. Working her hardest to imitate his finger positions along the fork she held the piece of omlette to her mouth, blowing on it twice before it was devoured._

_ She was still clumsy, but she would be like him yet._

_ "D'accord, Papa!" Cream beamed at him after swallowing. "Vas-y!"_

_ "Tres bien!" It felt so good when he smiled at her! Though he always gave Princess Sally a weird smile that didn't seem like him at all...why was that? "Ahh, you zare groweeng up zo vast! Now be tres garefeel wheen you go and play aujourd'hui, yes?" _

_ "Oui!"_

-00-

...that was _forever_ ago. Papa had left 'pour le preparation', and the house was left in silence, the only sounds being the scraping of a sponge against plates when Cream worked to clean the dishes from breakfast. Her omlettes weren't as good as Papa's, but he was teaching her plenty and it was getting better everyday; even Amy couldn't make them as well, she'd bet(she'd have to ask Tails; Amy'd told him that she was the one who would do the cooking between them)!

...Speaking of Amy...

Cream was bored. The dishes were done, the hut was cleaned, and there was so much time to run around outside and play.

It was such a nice day, too. And the adults were all busy...

And so she was here. Folding her ears down to force the air downwards as Tails had taught her, Cream floated down and tried to ignore the dull ache as she made a solid landing on her feet in front of the Prower-Rose hut.

"Ouuuch..." Her ears cramped; she really needed to practice her handy little 'shortcut' from her hut to theirs, because it was really starting to wear on her when it never used to. It wasn't one of those things you could just 'do' without any extra work, after all. The travel time wasn't even that long; just a hop, skip, and a jump from where she lived, really, if she flew.

Though how was everyone even able to tell the difference between everyone's house? If she didn't know the exact location from being there so many times, she probably would have ended up floating in Mr. Sonic's window, or in front of the Princess's front door. All the huts looked the same, with hardly any distinguishing features between them when you looked on the outside...

It was always the inside that differed, and this place was no exception.

Brushing any spare dirt off her blue-green dress (it wouldn't do to have it get dirty, even if it was her playdress), she swallowed.

"Maybe I should go in...?" she asked herself. "They probably are already up..."

Though were they even home? She scampered towards the door, making sure not to jar her ears with too sudden of movements.

She stood on her tiptoes, trying to reach for the handle...

...Only to stop cold, freezing her arm in midair as she heard a familiar voice coming from the nearby window.

"...So what's this thing you want to show me?" That was Tails' voice!

"I can't tell you. It'll ruin the surprise." And that was Amy! So they _were_ home.

"C'mon, tell me what it is. It isn't out in the forest, is it?"

"Just a little...It's not far or anything!"

"But Aunt Sally said..."

"I know what she said! Don't worry, we won't get in trouble!"

She shouldn't be listening in on this. It was rude, it was wrong for someone to unabashedly spy on others' conversations when they clearly weren't meant for her...

But somehow Cream still found herself sitting under the sill with an ear pricked up to listen.

_What are they talking about?_

"You're _sure_?"

There was a sort of clacking noise on the other end—like Tails was getting up from his chair. There was another scraping noise, and some shuffling...

"I'm sure! Don't worry about it! Now come _on!_"

"H-hey! Stop tugging me!"

Footsteps. They were leaving the room, and soon they'd see her sitting under the window! And then when they saw her, they'd know she was spying on them, and when they noticed she was spying on them, they might get mad and—!

The door was opening.

Cream jumped up and flapped her still-sore ears. Even as she gained lift she flinched and bit her lip—it still hurt; maybe it wasn't the best idea to try flying again, even if it was—

Was—

The wind was turning in another direction—her ears hurt, she could barely flap them as it _was_, and certainly not enough to get her in another dire—

They were outside the door, and with the sudden wind change, she was falling, and falling fast—

"EEEEK!"

-00-

It was over in seconds.

One moment there was a distinct feminine cry, and the next Amy's hands flew out, grabbing the cannonballing rabbit before she had the chance to knock either of the kids over. The girl's cheeks were stained with embarrassed red, and her ears wobbled lifelessly at her side.

"G-Good morning!" Amy set Cream down on her feet. "I um...I didn't mean to run into you! Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about us—are _you_ okay?" The pink hedgehog gave Cream a once-over; nope, she looked okay. If she'd hit the ground at that velocity, though, the likelihood of some skinned knees was rather high...

She adjusted her hammer on her shoulder-sling; it was starting to get uncomfortable, and the sudden rescue hadn't helped it any. She really needed to ask Rotor or Tails to make her a better one, or at least try to adjust it herself with a better arm-pad.

"Yeah," Tails added, "it's not like you to fall like that."

"W-well, um..." The rabbit shuffled her foot, glancing down.

Amy sighed.

"It's okay—you don't have to tell us or anything." Everyone had that thing they were embarrassed about, after all. Especially that one time... "Everyone messes up sometimes, especially Tails! Why, last week-"

Tails blanched. "AMY!"

"What?" Oh, he was so easy to tease. Besides, what did he think she was going to do—say something extremely pertinent in front of Cream? "I was only going to talk about when you hit that tree while flying! What were _you_ thinking about?"

Tails puffed out a cheek and grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Nothing, nothing at all", but Amy ignored the natural response of throwing him a hard glare, and instead let out a small laugh, even as Cream looked on with a bit of curious worry.

"So um..." The rabbit poked her foot in the dirt a little, swishing it around with her toes. "Where are you going?"

"Amy found something 'really cool'; she's been tryin' to drag me out all morning."

"Oh...okay." She swallowed, and glanced up at the two older children shyly. "Can I come, too?"

"Of course you can, Cream!" The pink hedgehog found herself chuckling a little bit at her wide-eyed, ecstatic expression; she was probably the only one in Knothole who considered spending time with Amy the equivalent of being with Princess Sally, or with Sonic.

_Then again_, she reminded herself with a dampened sigh, _She also lives with __**Antoine.**__ In comparison to __**him**__, anyone's cooler._

"Come on, let's get going! We're already wasting time!"

Not letting small things bother her, Amy grabbed the hands of her two companions and yanked them both forward—Tails with a groan and Cream with a squeak—moving in the direction of the familiar lift that would lead them deeper into the forest.

* * *

**Time: **Present Day, 11:17.

**Place: **Outskirts of Knothole Village, "The Great Forest".

* * *

There was always something about the woods that made Cream uneasy; maybe it was the feeling of branches and vines scratching against her legs, or the knowledge that the strange sensation of something going up and down your arm was probably a bug or a spider, or that scary 'ol Robotnik's bots hid in the forest, waiting for unsuspecting little girls to come in and get gobbled up by his robot-machine. Either way, she found herself moving closer to Tails and Amy's sides as they walked, sometimes even clinging to the dress of one or the hand of the other, her eyes darting back and forth as she searched the trees for any potential threat or monster that could possibly jump out at them.

_Though even if monsters __**do**__ come..._ she reminded herself with a shake of the head, _Amy and Tails can beat them up. Or we can fly away. We'll be okay. _

Swallowing hard and making another attempt at bravery, for the fifteenth time that trip, Cream tried to release her death-grip on one of her friends (this time Tails, whose sidepack had retained the brunt of her grip this rotation).

"How much further?" Tails asked, not for the first time since the three had set out.

"Just a little further!" Amy replied, also not for the first time since the three had set out. "It should be around here...it's a little hard to spot at first, though."

"How'd you find this...whatever-it-is, anyway? You didn't go sneaking out again, did you?"

"No way!" Amy shot back, adjusting her hammer-strap for the umpteenth time. "I learned my lesson from last time, thank you! The last thing I want is for my future husband to get mad at me again!"

"Then how _did_ you find it, Amy?" Cream tried to keep the trembling out of her voice, but—oh Gosh! Was that something moving in the bushes, or was that the wind? Maybe there were monsters in the forest, after all!

"Well, yesterday, I was looking for Sonic, as usual, and if you would believe it, he ran away from me and into the forest!"

Cream squeaked. "Oh, Amy, that's terrible!"

"I know, right? It's unbelievable, especially since he's doing that to his own girlfriend! So I went into the forest looking for him, and then I found—well, what I'm going to show you, if I could just find it!"

Amy let out a sigh. The foliage was starting to go past everyone's shoes, and the vines were getting thicker and thicker overhead. Were they further than they thought they were? "Where could it be? I _know _that it's around here!"

"Are we...are we lost?"

"Nuh-uh! We're not lost." Even with his insecure, even slightly pleading looks towards Amy, Tails still knew how to stay confident. If anything else, they could fly up and see where they were from a high point, right? The Great Tree wasn't exactly hard to spot from above, right? "Right, Amy?"

"Right! Now if only...hmmm..." Biting her tongue, Amy rummaged in her pockets.

"If only what, Amy?"

The question was left unanswered as the pink hedgehog continued to search in her skirt pockets, and then in her shirt, and then in her skirt pockets again. With a frustrated growl and a click of the tongue, Amy Rose stomped her foot against the ground.

"I can't find it!"

"Can't find _what_?"

Amy said nothing, opting rather to fiddle in her clothes some more, before letting out a small sound (it sounded a little like 'aha') and pulling out a small velvet bag from her skirt.

"Here it is! This should help." she said, dumping what looked to be a piece of jewelry into her hand: a deep pointed red stone connected to a silver chain, glimmering in the small vestiges of sunlight that found their way through the forest canopy. "It's how I found it last time."

"Wow!" Cream extended a hand, but knew better and shot it right back. It was rude to touch things that didn't belong to her, after all! "It's so pretty!"

"A _rock_? How's a rock on a chain supposed to help?"

"Not a 'rock on a chain', Tails!" Amy fumed. "It's a 'pendulum'."

"Okay," The fox shook his head. "So what's a 'pendulum' do? Looks like a normal ol' rock to me."

"Shut up and watch, okay?"

Amy took the chain and held it in two fingers, dangling the stone down. A second hand was placed underneath at a short distance, as though it was to prevent the bauble from going too far or flying away or something of that nature. The girl closed her eyes, mouthing something that seemed unintelligible to Cream, breathing in and out.

Suddenly, the stone started moving. The movements were slight at first, a small spinning, but after a few seconds it moved faster and faster, spinning around before something seemed to tug it, and it lifted up away from Amy's lower hand.

It was moving up, as though it was floating, pointing ahead.

"Whoa!" Even Tails was colored impressed; but then, when Amy had taken her strange looking cards out, he'd liked those too, even though he always seemed to deny it. "How's it doing that?"

"If you focus on what you want to find," Amy explained, still not opening her eyes, "it's supposed to find it for you. It can do other stuff, too."

"Well, I think it might be broken."

"What do you mean?" Still, the girl didn't open her eyes. Cream blinked between the two; what was he talking about when he said it might be 'broken'?

"You're looking for...whatever you're lookin' for, right?" A pause. "So why's it pointin' at _me_?"

"Huh?"

Amy's eyes flew open, and Cream glanced between the stone and the fox; it was true—it _was_ pointing at him! A straight arrow from the hedgehog to him, it seemed to tremble a bit in the air as it held its direction, but without fail. How was it doing that, anyway? Was it magic?

Amy blinked; she seemed just as confused as the rest of them were.

"That's...not supposed to happen."

"So it _is_ broken?" Tails asked.

"It's not _broken_!" Green eyes threw a hard glare, even when her face was the image of bafflement and surprise. Cream still wasn't sure how Amy could pull a look like that off—but somehow she managed. "It doesn't do anything like this! Normally it works just fine when I use it..."

"Then why would it be pointing at him, Amy?" Cream asked.

"This is weird. This is _mondo_ weird!" A finger of her free hand tapped her chin a moment. Did she have an idea? "What are you carrying?"

"Mecha Tails Mark 2?"

"Anything else? Anything at all? Maybe you have a magnet or something."

"How could a magnet work at _this_ distance? And you know I don't carry magnets; machines don't work when magnets're around!"

"I don't know!" Amy snapped. "Just look anyway! It can't just be _you_, because I wasn't aiming for you!"

A roll of the eyes (and a small mumble, though Cream couldn't make out exactly what it was that he had said—it was probably something bad!), a sigh, and a hand moved down to his sidepack, undoing the flap and digging inside. He usually just hid tools and strange mechanical gadgets in there, but occasionally he'd sneak food and other things when he felt like it. It didn't seem to be very organized though...

"Ouch!" His hand flew out of the pack like it had been burned. His furry face scrunched with disbelief, or maybe it was just contemplation, and he looked up at his companions and down to the bag again.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked.

"Are you all right?" Asked Cream. "Do you need a band-aid?"

"No, nothin' like that..." His hand reached into the pack again, only for his expression to grow more confused than before. "It's not hot anymore."

"What isn't?" Amy stepped forward, eyes fixed on his pack.

"Mom's stone! I touched it and it was really hot, like it was on fire, or somethin'. Now it's not like that at all. If I can only...just..."

Fingers reached into the bag again, and after rummaging for a few seconds, a jewel-cut yellow stone about the size of Tails' fist was pulled out and into the light.

Cream didn't understand why both Amy and Tails stared at it with such incredulity.

-00-

Something was different about it, Tails decided. It wasn't just the sudden heat (he'd have chocked that to the summer sunlight if it wasn't for the fact that Mecha Tails was still cool to the touch) that went to sudden pulsing warmth, or the fact that it was glowing brightly in what little light seemed to show in the forest. It wasn't even the fact that Amy's...'pendular', or whatever in the heck it was called, was pointing straight at _it_, and spinning rapidly.

It was the tiny beam of light that seemed to be reflecting off of it, shining out past Amy and into the forest beyond. It was common knowledge that stones with shiny surfaces reflected light and could create beams that could light dark paths, but there wasn't enough light to cause this sort of reaction...at least from any external source. Sure, the stone's own light do it, but then it begs the question of why it was glowing in the first place.

And then there was the hot-cold temperature. The 'pendulum' leaning towards it...not to mention Amy's shocked stare.

Something was going on.

"It's pointing at the stone!" Amy found her voice and tried to speak, though it came out a little more squeaky than usual. "Though what's it doing? Why's it acting like that?"

"It's acting weird?" Cream asked. Tails could only nod dumbly.

"Mom's stone never done anything like this before."

The most it'd ever done was glow, and he was sure he'd just imagined it.

There had to be a reason why.

_Maybe..._

He held the stone in his other hand, clenching his fist out of it and moving away from the light. If it was refracted, that would mean that if you moved it out of its immediate light source, the beam would fade...

...but it didn't, nor did the stone stop glowing.

_Weird...How's it doing that? This sort of thing shouldn't be happenin', 'cause everyone knows that magic 'n' stuff doesn't exist._

"Why's the pretty rock shining like that?" Leave it to Cream to ask the obvious, even when the other two are simply trying to make sense of the situation.

"Dunno..." Tails opened his fist, exposing the shimmering stone to the late-morning air.

Amy, who had long put her pendulum away in its velvet bag and held her hands at her hips, glanced at the others, then out at the beam again. She shuffled her feet under her, leaning side to side on each foot as she did so.

"We should follow it."

"Amy, that might not be a good idea..." Cream began, but Amy was already running, quick on her feet and darting deeper into the forest.

"Hey, Amy!" Tails called, already running after her, Cream in tow. "Waaait!"

* * *

**Time: **Present Day, 11:25.

**Place: **Outskirts of Knothole, the "Great Forest", uncharted area.

* * *

According to her Grandmother (may her soul rest in peace), the Ancients had created strange posts in order to guide the spirits of the dead, allowing them to get to their final resting places. Most were gone, scattered to the winds and rusted beyond repair in the middle of Mobius's deep jungles and great oceans...but there were some that survived, just waiting for those wayward souls to be able to use them as guideposts once again.

Amy Rose had never expected to find one (or something that looked suspiciously like one) in the middle of the Great Forest, covered in vines and flowers but still in good condition. It had been what she had gathered Tails and Cream to show, after all (though something told her that neither of them would really appreciate it; maybe she should have shown Princess Sally instead?)...

But it didn't look as...lively then as it did now.

The flowers and vines were gone, scattered along the sides of the device as the light from Tails' stone shone onto the top, sending the star on the head of the post to glimmer dimly. The base, not much taller than they were, was almost like new, the red orb on the top vibrant rather than faded like before...

And was that...was that a humming sound coming from it?

She stepped forward.

"AMMYYY!"

The pink hedgehog spun around, blinking. Tails and Cream didn't look worse for wear, at least; though the exasperation in the fox's blue eyes was clear, and the worry in Cream's even more so.

_Maybe I should have waited for them, huh? _

"When I..." Tails breathed, "Tell you to wait, I mean _wait_."

"Sorry." Amy adjusted her headband with a gloved hand, though her eyes weren't on either of her companions—rather on the post itself. "But I guess we found what we came for either way."

"You mean _this_ is what you wanted to show us?" Blue eyes stared up at it, then glanced over at Amy again. "This pole thing? What's it supposed to be? And why's Mom's stone—"

"Gramma called them 'Star Posts'." Amy said, "They're supposed to help the spirits of the dead find their rest..."

Twin-tails stiffened, and a tiny rabbit let out a squeak, jumping behind Tails and peeking over his side.

"You mean...l-like g-ghosts?" Tails asked.

"Well, duh." Amy shifted her weight on her shoulder; she really needed to learn that running short marathons with her piko-piko hammer strapped to her back was a bad idea. She probably needed to switch positions and restrap it before they went back. "But when I found it, it wasn't doing this."

"You don't think...that monsters are going to come, do you?"

"No, Cream, nothing like that." Monsters, coming out of a post? Come on, that was absolutely ridiculous—even if ghosts existed, there was no way that _monsters_ did. No matter what the old legends said. "Come on—we all know that monsters don't exist."

"If you say so..." Tails took a few steps forward, standing next to Amy and looking the post over. "Why's it doin' that, though?"

"Dunno..."

-00-

"What'll happen if we touch it?"

It was a simple question, and probably not something that one of sound mind would have made. "Always look at your surroundings and judge things accordingly," Aunt Sally had always said, usually with a stern look and that usual glimmer of worry in her eyes.

Freedom Fighters always made sure to check themselves. They never did anything reckless, never did anything they were going to regret later...

Still, he had to wonder. What _would_ happen if he touched it? And another question—why was this post thing, which was supposed to react to dead people, reacting to his mother's stone? Either Amy had her story wrong or there was a ghost living in it (a prospect that he didn't want to think about)...

He shook his head. _Come on, that's stupid. There's got to be a logi—logic—a reasonable reason why this is happening, right? _

"Do you think we should try?" Amy asked.

"N-no, I don't think we should do anything..." Cream seemed to be huddling near Amy now, glancing at the post from her hiding spot with increased reluctance.

"Maybe." Tails replied, glancing down at the stone again. "Nothing's probably going to happen, so..."

He took one step forward. Two, three. A strange humming was emitting from the pole itself, he noticed, which got louder the closer he approached.

He reached his free hand out.

"Be careful." Amy warned.

Tails turned to her and nodded. "I'll be fine."

His hand moved forward again and stood on his tiptoes, palm out, and his fingers almost brushed the top...

He hesitated.

_Come on, you're being stupid. What's the worst that could happen? _

In one fluid motion, he hit it as hard as he could, sending the top in a revolution—

—The sudden vibrating pain that shot through his arm, his own ear-splitting scream, and Amy and Cream's cries of shock were the last things he heard before he blacked out.


	4. Chapter Two: Out of the Frying Pan

**Chapter Two: **

** Out of the Frying Pan...**

**

* * *

**

**Time: **Present Day, 11:27.

**Place: **Angel Island, Marble Garden Zone.

Note: I know that Omochao, in canon, is actually a Robo-chao-thing. But he's just a tutorial character, so I figured some creative license wouldn't hurt!

* * *

Even if he didn't see it, he could _hear_ the sky-piercing scream, the loud thump as a heavy body crumpled to the floor, and the groans of pain coming from the mouth of the nearby cave. The burst of energy had almost knocked him out mid-flight, but Omochao was back and upright, ready to move once again to flit through the air. It was one of the many times he had to be grateful that he had wings; wings and apparently a natural resistance to...to whatever in the world _that_ was.

What _was_ it, anyway? One moment he was fluttering about, enjoying the midday sunshine and soaking up the balmy breeze, when all of a sudden he felt..._something_. Hard and electric, it pulsed through his body for what seemed to be an eternity (though it couldn't have been any more than five or six seconds), and he must have let out a cry of surprise (though he most certainly didn't remember if he did) before tumbling a few times and catching himself before he slammed into the rock face and became a Hero Chao pancake.

And that wasn't even considering the other, much louder voice of his companion, who must have been hit harder with...whatever it was more than he.

Omochao's wings fluttered, and his tiny white, puffy body let out a shudder. At least his halo was still in place—last time he made a tumble like _that_ he lost it—and he didn't have to go searching all day for it again.

A loud groan from inside the cave banished all thoughts of _that_, however.

"Aaagh!" Omochao squeaked; his wings worked on overdrive as he darted towards the cave to peek in at the sole inhabitant inside. From the red lump that resembled a living, sentient being on the rock floor, he was doing about as well as his voice made the Chao expect. "Knuckles! Knuckles, are you all right, chao?"

There was a muffled response, but it sounded suspiciously like "What do you think?"

"Can you get up, chao? Do you need help, chao?"

The red mass known as "Knuckles" shuddered, white gloved hands shooting out into the rock as spiked knuckles ("I'm sure Pops had a laugh riot when he came up with _that_ name," he would say dryly) jammed between stones, arms making an attempt to push the rest of his body up. Two attempts at this and he was up—or at the very least, _sitting_ up. Legs crossed and dreadlock-esque spines falling over his face, the red creature—really, he was an Echidna—could do nothing but let out another grumble as he shook his head.

"What _was_ that, chao?" Omochao moved above him, glancing down to check for any external injuries; other than a large bump of the head and some scrapes on his legs, nothing seemed to be wrong. "It came all of a sudden, chao!"

"I don't know." The voice was low, but Omochao could at least make it out. "I've never felt anything like that before."

"It was almost like lightning, chao!" Well, what he imagined lightning would be like, anyway, but who was really paying attention?

"I wouldn't know." Knuckles grumbled, "All I know is that my head hurts like hell—" He struggled to stand, only to let out a growl of pain and irritation and fall down on his rump. So much for _that_ idea. "And apparently my legs don't know what the word 'stand' means."

"Maybe you should rest then, chao? I can take a look to see what it was, chao!"

"And have you forget what you were doing halfway there and end up playing the middle of a field of flowers?" Once more he tried to stand, with mixed results. At the very least, his legs were working, but on the other hand, they weren't exactly very _sturdy_. "Yeah, no thanks."

Omochao pouted. "I _said_ I was sorry, didn't I?"

"Sorry doesn't help when a bat nearly makes it to the Master Emerald chamber, does it?" Knuckles snapped; he was right, though—the Echidna had him there, as much as he didn't want to admit it. Still, that was a whole _year_ ago! He'd gotten better since then, right? His guarding skills weren't _that_ bad! "I'll check it out."

"But Knuckles—"

Whatever protest Omochao had on his lips—"You're in no shape to go alone!"—was silenced by a raised gloved hand and a shake of the head. It was a wonder those gloves even _fit_ him with those spikes sticking out of his hands, but Omochao supposed that he'd seen stranger things.

"I mean it. Get back to the Master Emerald chamber and _don't_ get distracted this time. I'll meet you there."

"Are you sure that's a good idea—"

Knuckles didn't even let him finish that sentence; before he could, the Echidna was already up and out of the cave in a flash of red and white, taking to the air and gliding across the rolling green hills and crumbling ruins of Marble Garden faster than the Chao could follow.

"...Phooey, chao..."

* * *

**Time: **Present Day, 12:00 noon.

**Place: **Angel Island, Mushroom Hill Zone.

* * *

-00-

_"AGGGH!"_

_ Why was Tails screaming? He had touched the strange pole, palm out, slamming into it with all of his strength, and then all of a sudden his eyes had bugged out, baby blues almost glowing with agony and terror. His other hand still clutched that stone—that pretty, pretty yellow stone—and it started to shine, brighter and brighter until everything seemed to be covered in it. It was blinding..._

_**"TAILS!"**_

_ Even as she shielded her eyes with her ears, and with her blood frozen in fear, she could see the outline of Amy rushing towards him, arms reaching out to grab his hand, possibly to pull it back, away from the pole..._

_ Cream could have sworn she'd said both their names, but her feet were paralyzed, body rigid as she stood as far away as she could—_

_ So bright, couldn't see—_

_ And then blackness._

-00-

Responsible, properly-introspective little girls would have thought back on these things, probably. They possibly would have have spent much time contemplating their situation, that memory, maybe at the trunk of a tree with the shade obscuring them from the sun, or on the edge of the lake as they looked down at their own reflection in thought. That's what the girls in the stories did, at any rate—thought about their predicaments and considered the strange places that they were in with more than just a passing mention of it (just like Alice, in her favorite story).

But as it was, as much as she liked to say otherwise, Cream the Rabbit (self-dubbed "Cream Depardieu" to anyone who would listen) was most certainly _not_ a properly introspective little girl. She was five years old, and did what any five year old would do in her situation:

"WHEEEE! Hahaha, this is fun!"

And that would be to bounce off the top of the tallest mushroom she could find, shrieking with laughter as she took to the air, fell down, touched the top again with both feet, and flew even higher than _that_.

...Wait, _what_?

It had been an amazing find, that was for sure, and the little one couldn't help but wonder if she was dreaming. Blacking out in the Great Forest in a flash of light to the sounds of her friends' screams, only to wake up, alone, in a plain of green with vines the size of tree trunks cross-crossing the canopy above (though come to think of it, there were vines on the ground that led up there at an incline—what would happen if she climbed up there?). Mushrooms the size of a house lined everything with long, thin stalks, but with heads that resembled open umbrellas more than any fungus.

Funguses were _gross_, after all...but these were vividly colored and bold, and not icky-looking. They were almost like _trees_, but of course that was silly; mushrooms weren't trees, they were mushrooms! They grew on the edges of trees and weren't yummy to eat (though when they were cooked in butter like Papa always did they were delicious) at _all_.

If Cream was a more introspective little girl, she would have wondered exactly why there were huge mushrooms growing in the middle of a place she most certainly was, and maybe thought about why she'd come here to begin with.

"But that's boring!" the fun-loving child in her cried, and instead she'd climbed up the tallest mushroom and jumped on it, bringing about the apparent result.

Up and down, she bounced. Up and down, up and down, up and down...

"Hahaha! Yaaaaay!"

A few more bounces, up and down, up and down...

Up, and...vine?

On her latest (and perhaps highest) jump, this time boosted by using her ears for extra lift, something wide and _green_ was coming up towards her head, and coming fast. With only seconds to act the rabbit let out a sound of surprise and _pushed_ her ears to the right.

"KYAAH!"

A pocket of air tickled her toes when she felt rather than saw herself get propelled out of the way, now floating by and over the mass that had given her such peril before...but she was still a little far to get a good landing on it.

Now what was it that Tails had always told her about landings...?

"Oh! Right!"

Extending her ears, she drifted just a bit to the left as she was carried by a stray breeze and moved down again, much slower this time.

This was just like when she flew from her roof to Tails' that one time! All she had to do was make sure to keep herself steady, make sure not to fall...

_It's okay! _She thought with a confident nod. _I can do this!_

She'd landed on it (W_ow! It feels like a really big leaf!_) all right, but one foot lurched over the other and her body tumbled forwards, rolling a short ways before all twenty six pounds of her was left sprawled on the vine. So much for a good, easy landing; what was it with her clumsiness today?

"Sorry, Mr. Vine..." Cream mumbled, making a shaky attempt to sit up. Her head _throbbed_...she thought better of this idea and laid back down. Did she hit her head when she landed? "I didn't mean to land on you like that...I'll be more careful next time..."

What was she talking about—vines didn't _talk, _even if they _were_ really big! Why, if Tails and Amy saw her doing this, they would most certainly...!

-00-

_"AMY! TAILS!" _

_ Cream's consciousness faded, not before the light dazzled her eyes and sent spots across her vision..._

-00-

"Aaaaaaahhhh!"

Any regret that she could have felt at sitting up as fast as she did (her head, her head—it didn't just throb, it _pulsed_ now) was pushed to the sidelines as the memories rushed back to her: The woods, the stone, the post, the light, Tails and Amy's screams...

She wasn't in the Great Forest, and from the pain she was feeling, it wasn't a dream, either. So somehow, she'd managed to land, alone, in a forest full of tree-sized mushrooms that were better trampolines than any spring board she'd ever seen, with vines the size of tree trunks and green plains as far as the eye could see past that.

Wait.

That didn't add up. How could she get from one place to another without moving? And on top of that, how come Amy and Tails weren't with her? They'd been screaming when she'd blacked out, sure, but that didn't mean they couldn't have woken up near her and felt better, or at the very least, been near her to begin with? Unless something carried them off, there was no possible way that they could have been anywhere except together...

_Unless a monster came._ Cream felt herself shudder even at the mental image of that. If a monster came, and Tails and Amy were defenseless, it would have grabbed them for sure. And then they could have been sent to the monster's secret cave (because that's where all monsters lived, you know—there was no monster that _didn't_ have a secret cave where they hid all the little boys and girls they were going to eat), and unless the two of them got up and left fast, they would have been...

"No, no, no!" the rabbit assured herself. "A monster didn't get them! They're not eaten! They just must be lost, that's all!"

...Maybe that was a bit louder than expected. The tones of her voice seemed to echo off the mushroom trees, hitting her in the face before bouncing off the mushrooms once again.

That's right. They were probably lost. They all woke up in the same place and then they went out to investigate, leaving Cream alone to sleep. Tails was perfectly fine, Amy was fine, and they just wandered away and got lost somewhere in the mushrooms.

They were lost and were coming back, right?

They were going to find her, right?

Right?

Staring over the edge with a hand over her eyes and hoping to catch any glimpse of orange or pink, Cream didn't notice the tiny blue and yellow body that had moved to stand beside her, imitating her movements. All she could do was hope, and blink her brown eyes to prevent the rapidly pooling tears from flowing down her cheeks in a rather undignified (and rather unladylike) river.

She _really_ looked uncool now...

* * *

The chao had never seen anything so strange-looking in its entire—admittedly, rather short—life. Sure he'd seen strange-looking things, like the red guy with that weird white thing on his stomach that the bigger chaos seemed to like and talk to so much, or the super-big rock in that volcano-place that the bigger chaos and the red guy liked to guard, but nobody looked like _this_. She (was it a 'she'? The chao couldn't tell—girl chaos looked a certain way, but he couldn't tell with other things) was chubby-ish, with some green-and-blue pelt with long ears that hung down her back and fell down to her mid-legs.

Did chao ever get ears that big? At least he thought they were her ears, because he didn't see anything _else_ on her that looked like ears, so they had to be. Or maybe her real ears were under them?

He wasn't really sure, though he had taken it upon himself to find out, staring at the strange person with quizzical meeps and sounds as she seemed so distracted with...whatever she was doing.

At least, she was at the time. Now it seemed that the two of them were lodged in a sort of staring contest. Brown eyes, long since dry, had started to bore into black, and black just stared right back into them.

What sort of game was this? It was boring. It was just sitting around!

The big, unfamiliar thing then knelt down, and extended what looked to be a hand towards him, palm down. She had 'hands' just like the red guy! Except hers didn't look huge and scary, with those big pointed things at the ends.

The chao'd tried to touch those once; that didn't end well. Maybe it would end the same?

Waddling towards that hand, the chao grabbed a 'pinky' and a 'thumb' with each of his own stubby hands, and plopped it right on top of his head. The girl seemed to get the message; after a moment or so of sudden surprise, her apprehensive expression melted away, and she started to pat him on the head before going for broke and flat-out petting him.

"Do you live here?" She asked. She didn't seem scary—and her voice was nice enough.

He let out a sound of assent. He wondered if she could understand him?

"_Saas ranweh zhao! Ickben KorThao seeh?_ [I was born here! Are you from outside?]"

She seemed confused for a minute—he wondered why. Blinking her eyes a second, all disorientation faded, and a warm, pretty smile replaced it. She really did have a nice smile; the big Red guy didn't seem to smile much. He was probably just grumpy from hanging out with boring ol' Omochao all the time.

"Ummm...'Outside'?"

"[You know, not from here.]" Wait a second...the Chao blinked. "[You...can understand me?]"

The stranger nodded. "Every word."

...Huh. Omochao always said that outsiders wouldn't understand them. Shows what he knew; he'd have to tell him what-for when he saw him again!

"[So where are you from?]" If she was from the outside, it had to be somewhere cool! Like a big city like Carnival Night! Or at least, he thought Carnival Night was a city. That's what Omochao always said, anyway.

She smiled. "Knothole!"

"[Knot...hole?]"

"It's a place in the middle of the forest, with lots of people and trees! It's really pretty, too. My papa and friends live there."

So it was sorta like Angel Island Zone? Well, that was cool...somewhat. It would have been more awesome if it was a huge city with lots of lights and tons of people! Tons and tons and tons!

Though...

"['Papa'? What's that?]"

Why was she so stricken? It was like he didn't understand the simplest thing in the world; did he say something bad?

"You mean, you don't have a daddy?" She asked. "Or a mommy?"

"['Daddy'? 'Mommy'?]"

"They um...they love you and take care of you! I don't have a mommy, though...but I have my Papa and my friends and they're all really nice to me."

Ohhhhh! _That's_ what she meant! The Chao knew what _that_ meant!

"[I have Omochao and the big chaos. They take care of all the little ones. Is that like a mommy or a daddy?]"

"Mm-hmm! That's just like it!" Though then she got all confused again. "Umm. What's a 'chao'?"

She didn't know what a chao was? But didn't all places have chao, even outside? Omochao used to say there were chao everywhere, even outside, but if she didn't know what one was...

The chao pointed to himself and puffed out his chest. "[I am!]"

"Oh! So there are other chao here?"

"[Uh-huh!]" Oboy, he was really talking to an outsider, and she wanted to know about HIM! Wait 'till all the other chao heard about this! And she was nice to him, too! "[Lots of 'em! We've always been here—well, the red guy has too. He looks kinda like you, but really scary. But Omochao says he's really nice, and that he just acts scary.]"

She quirked an eyebrow. "Is Monsieur Red Guy _really_ nice? Really really nice?"

"[Dunno. I don't talk to him much—usually keeps to himself. But he knows all sorts of cool stuff about this place, and he can climb and fly!]"

She _squealed_. "He can fly? _Really_? He's just like me an' Tails! And he really knows a lot? Really?"

So she could fly, too? Small chaos could stay in flight for a very short amount of time, and could only go short distances before being forced to walk—usually only the big chaos could fly, and Omochao could fly the best (though that was because he had wings). Did other outsiders fly, too?

"[Yeah! He sure does! He could find anything here _anywhere_! I tried to hide from him once, but he found me ultra-fast!]"

"I wish _I _could find anything." She shook her head. "Then I'd be able to find my friends."

"[Your friends? Is one of those that 'Tails' you were talkin' about?]"

"Uh...uh-huh." Oh no, her eyes were starting to get all wet again, like she was when he'd first seen her. Didn't that mean she was sad? He didn't want her to be sad! "Tails touched this weird post-thing in the forest, and then I woke up here. But I can't find my friends, and I don't know the way home..."

So she was lost. The Chao knew what _that_ was like; he got stuck in a tunnel while hiding from the Red Guy one time and he ended up crying until some of the bigger chao managed to fish him out. The Red Guy didn't seem to be too happy with him, though...

"[What do they look like? Maybe I c'n help?]"

"W-well...one's a really cool pink hedgehog. Her name is Amy; she's taller 'n' me with a green and pink dress. She's really nice, but she's scary when she's mad."

"[What's a hedgehog?]"

"Ummmm...it's something like me, except their hair is all spiky. Monsieur Sonic is like that, too! He's a hedgehog, too, but Amy thinks that he's her boyfriend, even though he REALLY likes Princess Sally." She paused, and lifted her hands. "But I don't think that sort of thing is cool. Kissing boys is icky and gross!"

"[So you and Amy and this...Tails got separated?]"

"Uh...uh-huh. Tails is a fox with two big fluffy tails! He's so cool—he can fly like me, but he's a lot better at it; probably 'cause he's bigger."

She let out a sigh.

"I just wanna find them." She said, after a moment. "They're probly worried 'bout me and I looked all over an' couldn't find them."

"[You'll find them! If you're here, then they have to be somewhere on this island!]"

She blinked. "Is...land? I'm on an Island?"

Finally, another chance to prove his knowledge! He probably shouldn't have puffed his chest out so much, but... "[Yeah! I've never been to the edge or anything, but the big chaos say that this island flies, just like you! I don't know why it flies—the big Chaos say something about some boring thing with chaoses and stuff—but it does!]"

That...probably didn't give the reaction that he had been hoping. Brown eyes grew confused, and then wide, and then despaired before growing confused again...was it something he said?

"So it...flies? Is there, um...any way to get down?"

"[Sure! If you got up here, then there has to be a way to get _down_!]"

But how? How would this girl and her friends be able to get down (supposing they found—no, of course they'd find them! He was on the job, and he'd get it done no matter what!), back to this Knothole place where they were from?

Wait! Of course!

"[We can ask that Red guy! _He_'d know! Dunno where he is, but we can look for him! Maybe we'll find your friends on the way!]"

"Um...okay!" She was smiling again! That was a relief. He had to be doing _something_ right! A long ear was pushed back a little, and...the girl was bowing to him? That was what the big Chaos did in front of that big emerald thing. Well, no, it wasn't the same—she touched her pelt-skirt-thing and lifted it a bit, and lowered her head more. And her legs were somewhat crossed.

"Je M'appelle Cream Depardieu." She said, "That means 'My name is Cream Depardieu' in French. Papa and I speak it together a lot, but nobody else seems to want to learn." She paused a moment, before continuing, "So what's your name, monsieur Chao?"

"[Um...]" Ew, his name. Cream was such a _pretty_ name, not like _Chaogua_. "[Um...mine's stupid.]"

"We can't be properly introduced unless you give me your name, though! Papa said!"

"[Um...Then why don't you give me one? Nobody really uses my name anyway, and I'm sure you can think up a really cool one!]"

"Hmmm..." She touched her face with a single finger, tilting her head in thought. "How about...how about 'Cheese'?"

Cheese? That...that fit! The Chao, Chaogua, now newly christened 'Cheese', let out a small squeak of satisfaction.

"[Yeah!]"

"Okay, so...let's try this again." Cream extended her hand. "My name is Cream. What's yours?"

Cheese floated upwards, touching hers with his stubby own.

"[Cheese!]"

And thus a friendship had begun.

* * *

**Time: **Present Day, 1:35 PM

**Place: **Angel Island, Hydrocity Zone.

* * *

"...ails..."

_Mmph. Who's being so loud? Owwwwwww, I've gotta mondo-headache...who turned out the lights? Heheh, that's what Sonic would say, probably. _

_ ...But why do I hurt so much? _

_ Though my hand feels kinda warm..._

"...ake u..."

_Wait. I think I remember. There was that big post-thing, and then I touched it. Everything started to hurt a lot, and then..._

"...orry...n't me..."

_Huh. I can't remember anything else. I can hear somethin' though...sorta like...water? But we were at the Great Forest...Am I at Never Lake now?_

"...ease...ake u..."

_Ow, ow, ow...My head still hurts. Wait. Is that...?_

_

* * *

_

"Tails...?"

Blue eyes opened, one after the other, eyesight returning in a series of blurry images before everything seemed to pan out in front of him. Golden bricks, water as far as the eye could see, there were even the smallest hints of whirring gears and odd gizmos dotting the landscape here-and-there, though barely in sight enough for him to tell exactly what they were.

Where _was_ he? This was completely unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Wherever he was, he wasn't in the Great Forest—but what did...?

"Tails!" The loud, familiar cry knocked the confusion out of him in a single instant. "You're okay!"

...A sudden flash of pink and green zoomed in front of his eyes. That strange, comforting warmth on his hand was now gone and replaced by a heavy weight on his stomach; with a loud cry he felt his back and tails strain against the rock under him, but what further sounds he could make were lost as the wind was completely knocked of his lungs.

"A—ACK!"

"You're okay! You're really okay!"

_I won't be if you keep crushing me like that! Ow, Amy, this __**hurts**__! And wait...why are you wet? _

The crushing bear hug was gone as soon as it came, thankfully, and the pink hedgehog raised herself off of him, turning her head a moment to rub something out of her eyes before moving her attention back to him.

_Huh...?_

Whatever expression she'd had before was gone, replaced by the usual Amy Rose smile.

"O-Of course," Her voice hitched slightly, a tinny pitch added to her usual soprano, "I knew all along that you were going to be all right."

The fox let out a groan, holding his head as he sat up. At least it wasn't hurting as badly as it was before, but with the pain on the rest of him (though he wasn't sure whether to blame Amy for that), this was a minor trifle. What in the world _happened_?

"'Course I'd be fine! Though..." His eyes raised above him, then around. Bricks, water, strange machines, and nothing else...though they seemed to be a far distance from any sort of handhold that he could see. A single platform in the middle of a pool of water, with large columns with strange cliff-faces surrounding them; if they were sitting on a lily pad, he'd know exactly what a frog felt like. "...Where exactly _are_ we?"

"Dunno." Amy shook her head. "When I woke up, I was in this weird room with a bunch of water around..."

"So you went to look for me?"

She nodded. "Mm-hmm. I found you lyin' here. You didn't look too good, but I knew you'd be okay." A pause, and then she continued, as though she remembered something. "Also, your bag is dry, so your stuff should still be all right."

_Mom's stone! Mecha Tails! _Panicked hands flew to his side-satchel, and, to his relief, it was dry, as she said. It was dry, and everything seemed to be in order—he supposed he should thank the post for leaving him in a spot where he wasn't going to get his only belongings ruined by water-damage...if there was really a reason to thank it at all.

After all, that stupid thing was the reason they were in this mess to begin with.

_Remind me to bring Sonic next time she wants to show me somethin' cool. If he was there, we might not even __**be**__ here. _

Wait. If Amy was here, and she was okay, then...? "Amy, is Cream...?"

"Not here." Pink shoulders slumped. "I looked everywhere for her...I didn't find her."

"Maybe she's still in the Great Forest?" She had to be. If Amy couldn't find her...no, he wasn't going to think along that line. Cream _had_ to be back there. "She didn't get close to the post-thing, so she's gotta still be there!"

At least she was smiling at that one—if even Amy Rose lost hope, then he'd be in mondo-trouble. Though he probably could have lived without her clasping her hands together and having her eyes sparkle like some sort of storybook heroine. "Yeah! She's probably getting Sally and my Darling Sonic as we speak! She _has _to be!"

"Totally." Even if Sonic wasn't her 'darling', and would rather run to Robotropolis without a Power Ring than be something like _that_. "Sonic'll think of something! He always does."

"Obviously! I wouldn't have chosen anyone less as my future husband!"

"_Gross_! Amy, can you not talk about weird stuff until we get out of here?"

A pause stretched between the two of them. Green eyes glared in the fox's direction before proceeding to make an attempt to dry herself off with a loud 'hmph!', and blue eyes trained upwards at the columns of brick and machine. Even if Cream _was_ getting Sonic, how in the world were _they_ supposed to get out of here? Sonic didn't really like water all that much, and as it stood, they had to at least _try_ to get out before the adults arrived...

But how...?

Wait...

-00-

_"Hey, Tails! Why don't you fly me up to that big tree?"_

-00-

Of course! How could he have been so _stupid_? He'd just...

"Hey, Amy?"

Said hedgehog stopped in the middle of wringing out her soaked pink skirt, turning towards the fox with a quizzical expression. "Yeah?"

"Wanna try going up there?" Standing on his tiptoes he pointed up towards one of the shorter crevasses. Granted, 'short' was a relative term (even from his vantage point, that had to be about 30 to 40 feet...when you considered some of the trees in the Great Forest that he'd gone up, that didn't seem to be much, but when you considered the added weight...), but compared to the others' 100 to 120 approximate feet up, it was a difference.

The only alternative was to go through the way Amy came in...which was probably through the water vent to his right. Nah, he didn't even want to _think_ of that plan; even if he was a good swimmer, Tails didn't want to risk submerging any electrical devices if he could help it. Mecha Tails was still new and a little unstable, and any unknowing bump on the controller while swimming could cause the thing to turn on, which would lead to a rapid discharge while underwater...

And really, the rest of that scenario would pretty much go as expected.

"C'n you go that high?" Amy asked with a tilt of her head.

"Of course I can! I flew you up in that super-tall tree before, didn't I?"

She stood, stepping towards him before looking up at where he was pointing. Amy clicked her tongue and tapped her foot, but no real sounds were coming out.

_I'm waiiiiitiiiiing...That's what Sonic'd say, huh?_

"Come on, we've got nowhere else to go, and I don't wanna be sittin' down here all day."

"..." One more pause, and Amy bit her lip. "Okay." She finally brought herself to nod, but the trepidation in her voice was hard to ignore. "Let's just be careful."

"'M _always_ careful!" The fox stood and stretched his legs, before glancing over at Amy. "Just when we go up, hold on tight, okay?"

His companion stared up at the ledge, then turned towards Tails and shivered before nodding with more vigor than he'd expected.

"Y-yeah," She agreed, "I don't wanna think of what'll happen if I slip and end up down _there_ again."

* * *

"You okay, Tails?"

"Y-Yeah. 'M fine. You okay?"

"Uh-huh. Did you hurt your ankle or anything?"

"Nah. I'm completely fine! Just sorta surprised me, 'sall."

Amy panted a bit before brushing some sweat off her forehead and adjusting the sidepack. Tails was lucky that he brought around something so _light—_even with the robot-thing (_Mecha Tails_, Amy reminded herself, _It's called Mecha Tails._) and his stone, the total mass was still something to be appreciated. At the very least, it didn't weigh _her_ down, even with her hammer and everything else. "I guess it was a good idea to have me carry the pack this time. Or else it would've fallen in the water!"

Tails threw her what Amy thought was supposed to be a glare, but with his fatigue in the equation, it really just looked like he'd swallowed a disgruntled pack of Fire Ants. "Shut up, Amy. If it weren't for you being so _heavy_, I wouldn'ta stood so close to the edge! I woulda been _fine!_"

Green eyes _blazed_. Oh, he _didn't._ He didn't just say what she thought he said. "_**Miles Prower**_," She snarled, hand already rising for her hammer. "Are you calling me _**fat**_?"

"N-no, no! Not at all! I wasn't callin' you fat at all!"

Backpedaling. Yeah, with a hammer as a proper threat, that seemed to be the most common response.

Though...did he _really_ think she was too fat? She'd always thought she was nice and petite; more so than _Sally_, that was for sure...

"Good." Hands away from her weapon, she crossed her arms. "'Cause I'm _not_."

"You're not fat, but _we're_ still lost!"

...He did have a point, as much as she hated to admit it. The fly up had at the very least been successful, allowing the kids to land on the platform they had eyed when they were stuck on the floating bit of rock before, and while they had both thought it would lead them in some direction or have a focal point, all it did was serve as a hub to even _more_ tunnels and passages that Amy couldn't seem to have _any_ bearings on!

Though at least they weren't _gold brick_. Some were made of bricks with images on the side, but others had the obvious mechanical touch, with slides and loops and other paths made of everything from bright sheet metal (though how did that...what was that thing? A set of tracks? How did it manage to stay afloat?) to pale blue...something. And that wasn't even counting the different paths in the brick itself...

"Yeah...where do you think we could go?"

"Dunno." Tails shook his head. "I guess you can't use that pendulum thingy to help us find a way out, huh?"

Amy sighed. "If I knew where we were s'pposed to go, I could do it. But I dunno the way out."

"Why don't you just ask it that?"

"'cuz it'll get confused! You gotta get specific, or else it won't understand you!"

"But it's just a _rock_! It doesn't have a brain _to_ understand things!"

"It doesn't need one!" Amy retorted. "A person can focus on it and it will tell them where to go, if it gives exact directions. You can't give a computer directions if it's not specific, right?"

Golden-orange fur furrowed in thought. "Nuh-uh."

"It's sort of like that. It won't work unless it knows what I want to look for."

"Hmmm..." A sigh. "So we _can't_ use it, then. So what are we supposed to do?"

"Well, this has to end _somewhere_..."

Just...where? That was the question. There were so many areas they could go, that it was hard to determine where to _start_...

Maybe if they started from the top...

"Hey, Amy! I found something!"

And by 'something' he of course meant 'a huge disc of metal coming out of the ground with a gloved hand extending out of the middle'. Tails' hand was extended towards it, but the disc did nothing, simply standing there stationary as the fox child poked and prodded its underbelly and sides his finger. He poked it again and again, glancing at Amy with expectant impatience, but all she could do was stare, flabbergasted.

"What _is_ that?" she asked. She moved to Tails' side, kneeling down, but did not bring her hand to touch it. She didn't _dare_.

"Dunno. But it came out when I moved my hand like this!"

"Maybe it's something dangerous?"

"If it was dangerous, wouldn't it'a done somethin' when I touched it?"

"Well, yeah..."

"S'ides," Did he really have to puff his chest out like that? While he was poking an unknown object with a gloved finger, it made him look rather ridiculous. "I know lots more about these things than you do. I'll be okay."

"If you know so much, then tell me what it's supposed to do! Why's there a hand coming out of it?"

"Maybe it's supposed to grab stuff?"

"Like _what_? What would it grab? There's nobody he—AAAAAAAH!"

...Quite possibly it would be there to grab things like _her_. By the time she'd felt it grab her and plop her on the metal surface, it was far too late, the serrated bottom spinning and her legs moving before she had time to think.

The panic rising in even Tails' voice could not be contained. "AMY! Amy, hang on!"

"TAILS!" She screamed. What was this, what _was_ this thing, what was it going to do? She wished her heart would just stay in her chest, stay out of her throat, and stop beating so fast already! "Tails, do something!"

"Um, um...hang on! I'm trying!"

What was he doing? One moment, she thought he was going to help her, and then the next, he was grabbing onto her shoulder, tightly, with one hand, and trying to reach into his satchel (which was still connected to her) with the other. Seconds passed as he fished around, but all he could do was let out a loud growl of frustration.

"I didn't bring my tools!"

"Then what are we going to do?"

"I dunno! Maybe if I try to disentangle it at the base-"

"You can't do that!" Amy shrieked. "It's MOVING! Anything you do will get your hand cut off!"

"Then what-"

That question could only be led into a loud scream, as the machine spun at its highest velocity and spat its captive out at high speeds, Amy's fox companion barely able to latch on in time for both of them to go hurtling forward, onto a blue slide filled with water that only seemed to lead down, further and further into the water-and-brick maze.

...And the glowing pink orb could only let out a gasp, hurrying at its full speed in order to catch up to them.

* * *

**Time: **Present Day, 1:50 PM.

**Place: **Angel Island, Marble Garden Zone.

* * *

"[Wooooowwww!]"

Cream wasn't sure whether or not to be proud or a little embarrassed with little Cheese's reactions in her arms. This place, "Marble Garden Zone", as the Chao had called it, was supposedly high on a mountaintop, and a steady incline to a sort of network of caves below.

"[But there's all sorts of scary things here,]" he had told her before tucking his head under her arm, "[So we gotta be careful. Lots of spikes and stuff.]"

Though from up here, Cream decided, it was hard to tell that there were any dangers at all. The grass was tall but very green, far greener than anything she'd ever seen in the Great Forest. The tinges of brown she had been long used to were gone, replaced with vibrant color and dotted with structures of the purest, snowiest white.

Of course, this _still_ wasn't as cool as the lush jungle they had to run through after leaving the mushroom forest, or rolling down the loop-the-loops in the skyward vines, but it still had its charm—a charm that the rabbit had never seen or experienced in Knothole or beyond.

"Please be careful, Cheese, or you'll fall off!"

She was lucky that she was using a sudden breeze for lift, and that her ears were only gliding her along—if she had tried to actually flap them, there was a likelihood that she would have become a rabbit pancake long before now. And if what Cheese said about the ruins was true...

Cream swallowed. She didn't even want to think about that.

"[Sorry!]"

"It's okay, but we're really high up!"

High up but descending at a steady pace; the wind was descending, swooping towards some spare crags (spare _safe_ crags, Cream noticed with not just a slight sigh of relief) on one of the many steep cliff-faces. How far did this place go down, anyway? As far as she could see, it went down, down, down...there were some side-caves and a few pits, but nothing beyond that. So it's supposed to go further down than _that_?

She just hoped she wouldn't have to _go_ down there. There might be weird creatures living down there...Cheese may have said that he only knew of the Chao and that 'red guy', but that didn't mean there weren't other things lurking, sitting around on bated breath for some stumble-footed little girl to come within its grasp.

"Cheese, um...are you sure this is the right way?"

"[Yeah! The Red guy normally hangs 'round here—at least, that's what Omochao always tells me.]"

"Won't Monsieur Red guy be mad at us?"

"[Well, maybe. He's kinda a grouch. But if you tell him what's going on, he'll probably help! He helped _me_ when I was lost.]"

"And..." Cream swallowed. "If he doesn't...?"

"[Then we'll just have to ask some of the other Chao for help, that's all!]"

"O...Okay..."

The ground was going to meet her faster than she had thought. The previous landing zone had been long out of reach, and instead she was faced with another steep slope and a steel ring connected to a long metal cord. There was another similar slope to its right, leading further down...

But what was beyond that? It just seemed like endless sky, which led into a pit of..._something_. Besides the platforms near it, that route didn't look too approachable.

"[Cream, we're gonna hit the ground!]"

"I-I know! P-p-please hang onto me, okay?"

From the way Cheese was grabbing onto her dress, it seemed like he didn't need to be told twice.

She hoped she could do this; though she _had_ to. Otherwise, she wasn't going to be able to find Tails and Amy, and for all she knew they could have been wandering around scared, trying to look for her! Or just trying to find the way out (they were separated, so they might not know she was there, right? But she knew _they_ were there, because they had to be! If _she_ was here, then why wouldn't they be? Of course, that was considering if it was the pole that had sent her there in the first place)!

Cream pushed the frightened pinpricks of tears out of her eyes, and ignored the rapid racing of her heart. She didn't have time for that; the ground was coming, coming...

Coming, coming...there! Soon to be out of reach of the end of the ring, Cream reached out with a single arm, clutching the end of it...

...Only for both Rabbit and Chao to let out a cry as the ring shot up, sending them both shooting towards the end of the incline.

It stopped.

_Now_ what was she going to do...?

Wait, there was a platform to her right, only few feet away from her. If she let go and jumped, she could hit it. But if she missed, it was straight down that slope, and then into that gross pit below.

She shuddered. It was either hit it, or fall.

The jungle was like this, too—and she didn't like the option _there_, either.

_But I got through that okay, right? I should be okay now! Maybe..._

Screams of protest had to be once again pushed to the back of her mind, and turning to the right, the girl made a leap of faith.

...Or maybe a flight of faith, with the way she was flapping her ears like that. She shot up and over in a burst of pure concentrated effort, and in an exhausted slump, Cream let herself fall down to the ground. Now if only she was able to work on her landings—her feet crumpled from under her and she rolled and fell again, flat on her back and staring up at the sky.

The concerned face of Cheese stared down at her. "[Are you okay?]"

"Uh...uh-huh."

When her father told her never to go exploring too far away from the house, maybe this was what he meant by that. How did Amy manage to jump around branches like she did without getting tired? This was the fourth rest stop Cream had to make that day!

"[A-are you okay to keep going? We can rest here! It should be safe, and I think there are Pella trees nearby to eat from!]"

"B-but I gotta...find Tails and Amy..." Cream wheezed. "They...they may be hurt."

If the two had been paying attention to their surroundings, they would have noticed the low sound of footsteps, or the crunching of spikes against rock before even _that_. As it stood, Rabbit and Chao were only concerned with one another's company, and so had not expected:

"I think you should let _me_ be the judge of that."

What was _that_?

Cream and Cheese both rose with a unified gasp, staring at the red figure who glowered down at them.

"Um...Um..."

A sigh, and a shake of the head—though the figure didn't look any more friendly, or any more accomodating. Those fists with the spikes coming out of them didn't help much, either...

His violet eyes were cold, uncaring.

"Well, now that I have your undivided attention," he took a step forward, raising his fists. He wasn't going to _use_ those on her, was he? "Maybe you can start by answering a few questions."

"L-like what, sir?" It was probably not a safe idea to start speaking, especially when Cheese was moving to stand between her and the stranger. But it was rude to be impolite. "U-um, d-did I do something wrong? I didn't mean to, um..."

To make you mad. To make you raise your fists. To make you look like you want to pummel the very ground she walked on.

Was he rolling his eyes at her? "...Cute. First, you can start by telling me where the hell you came from."

"Um. Um. Um..."

"This isn't a debate, kid." He growled. "Loosen your tongue or I'll loosen it for you."

...Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to step backwards, or expect Cheese to say something.

Again, the stranger stepped forward.

"I also wouldn't try running, if I were you." She'd never seen a person sound so calm, so collected while giving threats. When Papa was mean, he yelled like crazy, and got really loud...he was never like _this_. "It's a long way down from here, and I'm sure your ears will give out long before you can manage to save yourself from a clean drop."


	5. Chapter 3A: Lost and Found

**Chapter 3A: **

** Lost and Found**

* * *

-0-

**Time: **Present Day, 1:50 PM.

**Place: **Angel Island, Marble Garden Zone.

-0-

Omochao had always said that the Red Guy was nice deep down, and Cheese had, at least to some degree, believed that. He hadn't punched around any chao with those huge fists of his at any rate, and he hadn't been openly mean to anyone in front of him. He was sure if he'd truly gotten to know him, Cheese may have really grown to like him, and not just think he was 'cool' or 'tough' or 'reliable' like he had once thought before.

'Once' thought because of the way he was glaring at his new friend, and speaking to her like she was some sort of threat. Some sort of enemy that needed to be eliminated.

If Cream hadn't been so close to the edge, she probably would have run, he surmised. Grabbed him and flown to safety as fast as her ears could carry them. Not that it would have made much of a difference with the Red Guy's speed and strength, but she would have at least done _something_, rather than stand around with her eyes wide and mouth agape while she floundered for something to say other than 'um' and 'uh'.

"Um...I'm um...um..."

"Look kid," The Red Guy crossed his arms. "If you think you're getting anywhere with this frightened little girl routine, you're not."

"Not tryin' to!" The rabbit shot back. As though she remembered something important, she covered her mouth with both hands as her eyes widened, though the tears that started to spill down her cheeks were unmistakeable.

"Right. You're just some little girl, who just so _happened_ to get onto an island that few surface dwellers have ever found, much less survived the journey. Next you're going to tell me that you're a magical princess from a fairy kingdom, and that everything you touch will turn into candy."

"..."

That wasn't fair. He hadn't even heard Cream's story! From the looks of it, he didn't even seem to _want_ to, pushing and prodding for something that Cheese wasn't really aware of. Wasn't what she said good enough? Cream wasn't the sort of person to lie, after all!

The Red Guy's glare was hard, and Cream's body was shaking.

He had to do _something_!

Bouncing into the air, Cheese flitted closer to the Red Guy, crossing his arms in defiance.

"[She came from Knothole!]" He insisted. "[An' she _is_ lost! She told me so!]"

Violet eyes widened for a moment, though Cheese wasn't sure why, before they lowered and became angry slits.

"[You actually _spoke_ to her?]" the Red Guy asked, switching to Cheese's own—and his native—language on the fly.

"[Uh-huh.]" Cheese puffed out his chest proudly. "[She understood me, too.]"

He wasn't sure why the Red Guy looked so perturbed; well, Omochao _did_ say that people from the outside couldn't talk like them, but _Cream_ understood him, so that meant he was wrong! He probably didn't like being proven wrong. That had to be it!

"[That's impossible,] the Red Guy said, [Outsiders can't speak our language.]"

"[You can speak _theirs_.]" Cheese retorted.

"[_I_ was _taught_. _You_ weren't. Chao may be able to understand others, but that doesn't mean she is able to understand _you_.]"

"[Well maybe outsiders _could_ speak like us! 'Cause she can understand me and can prolly understand you, an'...]"

The Red guy didn't even seem to _notice_ him at this point. Staring over Cheese's shoulder at Cream, who had managed to walk forward a few steps with some newfound courage, he placed his oversized hands at his hips.

"[Let's try this as a little test, then.]" His words were slow now, speaking to Cream as one would a particularly stupid child. "[Do you understand what I'm saying, Outsider?]"

Cream nodded. "Uh...uh-huh. I can, um...Monsieur Red Guy, Sir."

Even though it had been he who said it, he looked really confused. Was Cream not supposed to understand? Or was it 'cause all outsiders weren't like what he thought?

"[...You can understand me.]" It wasn't so much a question rather than a statement, but with the way his face was looking, it might as well have been a question.

Again, Cream nodded. "Ou-oui, I understand you, sir."

"[...How?]"

"I...I don't know. All I know is that I woke up, and then Cheese talked to me, and I could understand what he was saying even though he talked all funny." She paused. "I know that um...that people not from here can't do that. You told Cheese that too, but...but..."

Cheese hugged Cream's leg, patting on it to give her some sort of comfort, even as the tears were starting to come and the sniffles were growing louder, louder, and louder...

"I don't know what's going _on_..."

Her speaking had grown to a higher, fevered pitch, almost a wail; Cheese's new friend held her face in her hands and sobbed, shaking her head and letting her ears flap to and fro.

"[It's okay!]" Cheese fluttered upwards and touched her shoulder. "[Everything'll be fine! Just don't cry, okay?]"

"Just wanna find my friends..." She sniffled once, hiccuping and breathing in—all it really did was make her speech more incomprehensible to Cheese, though from the wet tones and occasional coughs he was able to at least make some of it out. "Just wanna find my friends and go home, honest. I didn't mean to make you mad, Monsieur Red Guy, didn't mean to do something wrong..."

The switch to common didn't even seem to give any effort to the Red Guy.

"You keep telling me that you want to find your friends, and that you didn't mean to make me mad, but you still haven't explained how you got here. Do you can think you can manage that?" The Red Guy touched his head with a sour grimace. "With _minimal crying_?"

Cream looked up with a loud sniffle and gave him a small nod.

"Uh...uh-huh."

"All right...so talk. How the _hell_ did you manage to get on this Island, if you and your friends are so 'innocent'."

Cream gasped, and it was almost as though she was going to step back, but she thought better of it. Her eyes grew to the size of saucers.

"You...you said a bad word!"

Now the Red Guy really _did_ look confused. Maybe a little annoyed, too. "..._What?_"

"You said a bad word, Monsieur Red Guy! The 'h' word!" Cream repeated. "You're not supposed to say bad words, because if you do, then you'll get your mouth washed out with soap and go to bed without supper. Papa said so!"

"[I don't believe this...]" The Red Guy _growled_ now, shaking his head even after his palm slapped it. "Fine. I won't use it again, all right? Just...just answer me. _Please_."

What word did the Red Guy say that was bad? He seemed to understand, but Cheese sure didn't. Maybe it was a non-chao thing? But it seemed to perk Cream right up, and she was even giving him a smile.

"Amy wanted to show us somethin'." She said. "Amy wanted to show us somethin' cool, so she took us into the forest."

"And who's Amy?" he asked. "One of your 'friends'?"

"Uh-huh. She's...she's a hedgehog, all pink and pretty, and she uses a big hammer to hit stuff when she's mad."

"Okay..." That was the tone that Omochao used when he wasn't happy about something—but if he got mad and tried to get all scary with Cream again, Cheese would definitely protect her. Yeah. "Go on."

"Well, she tol' us it was cool, so we went into the forest and it was really scary! Like, it was dark and it looked like there were monsters there, but I wasn't scared at all, because I knew Amy and Tails would protect me! So when we looked for it, Amy couldn't find it, and she decided to use her pretty rock on a chain to go and find it..."

-0-

**Time: **Present Day, 1:52 PM.

**Place: **Angel Island, Lava Reef Zone.

-0-

"This is the last time I'm _ever_ letting you look at machinery when we're _lost_, Miles Prower!"

"ME?" A splash, followed by an angry slap of fur against an even wetter hard surface. "_You're_ the one it grabbed!"

"But I wouldn't have been grabbed if you hadn't looked at it!"

"It came up when my hand moved by it! If I'd just walked past it, I woulda been grabbed and gone off and you wouldn'ta known where to find me!"

"Urgh..."

"I'm _right_, aren't I?"

A stomp of a soaked foot on stone answered _that_ question.

The fox glared at the pink hedgehog with a huff, slinging the bag the girl had been carrying over his shoulder before turning away.

"At least Mecha-Tails isn't wet." Thank the world for small favors, though for the life of him, Tails couldn't be too certain as of how. Maybe it was how tightly it was pressed against Amy's dress—the bits of it that weren't soaked anyway. "That woulda been bad if it got submerged somehow."

"Yeah. Too bad you can't say the same about _yourself_."

Tails snorted, before a wicked gleam formed in his eye.

"Well," he said with a chuckle, "It's been a while since I last took a bath."

...And then with that, he stepped close to Amy and shook himself out _hard_, sending water flying everywhere that wasn't on himself and quite possibly soaking her even more than she already was.

"EEEEK!"

"What? I'm just drying off! You _said_ I was soaked, Amy!"

"And now _I'm_ soaked!" Amy paused, shooting Tails a _look_. "And stop grinnin' like that! It's _not_ funny!"

The fox coughed once, shaking his head before throwing her a mock-innocent stare. "I didn't do nothin', Amy. You're just imaginin' things!"

"...Riiiight." Oversized blue shoes (now soaked through and firmly on the girl's feet) squelched against the brick as the pink one moved to stand next to her companion. "What exactly _was_ that?"

"Dunno. I guess a security mechanism or somethin'. Aunt Sally told me that some machines sorta work on motion, and if you go too close, they go off. Maybe that's what it was?"

For some reason, the hedgehog turned away. "So the security here's just throwing us down a slide and into...into..._here_?"

"I didn't say it made _sense_." He snorted and stuck out his tongue. "Still...where the heck _are_ we?"

Wherever they were, it was _hot_. Hot and rocky and _dark_, with enough heat in the air to dry out a decent amount of Tails' fur within the span of a few minutes (well, what wasn't replaced with sweat, anyway, but even that was drying fast). The tiniest glow of red in the distance revealed hints of some platforms with something...something _steaming_ sitting between them, and some slides that led who-knew where.

A network of caverns, perhaps?

"Dunno...I can't see a thing." Amy started to take a small step forward, but then decided against it for some reason.

"Maybe we're in a mountain?"

"Why would a water slide drop us into a _mountain_, Tails?" Did she really have to roll her eyes? "That's just stupid."

"Then where do you think we are?" Tails asked.

A foot-stomp in retaliation. Of course. "I _said_, I dunno!"

The fox let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his head-fur. With a shake of his head, he was already reaching one arm back and digging through his backpack for that familiar feel of metal.

"Then," he shook his head. Where was it...? "We should go look! That's what Sonic and Aunt Sally would do."

"But what if we can't get out?" She fanned herself with one hand. "I'm hot."

"Me too." Ah, there it was! "But we can't sit here, can we?"

A shake of the head. "Nuh-uh."

"Maybe we'll find somethin'. Or maybe someone'll tell us where we are. All that stuff has to be there for a reason, right?"

Maybe they'd get back before the adults sent a search party, wherever they were. Cream had to be down there grabbing them right that minute, and it was their luck that they had to be thrown into some mountain with no clear exit and no certain way for anyone to pinpoint them.

Well, they'd think of something.

Still...

He glanced upwards.

There had to be something up there. The faintest glow of red was all he had to go by, but from the shadows above them, it was clear that the roof at least wasn't a short one, and there'd at least be enough room to do a minor aerial scouting. Though the tinge with red, the soft light that cast those shadows...

He rubbed his arms and shook his head.

"Hey, Amy."

"Yeah?"

He glanced behind him to the source of the response, but there was no pink hedgehog in sight. Where did she-?

His heart quickened a little and he sucked in a breath.

"Amy?"

_It's fine. She's probably not lost or anything—she sounds okay, so it's probably—_

"Up here!"

Up? His eyes scrolled up to 40 degrees, 60 degrees...where...?

Ah! Up and to the right! He should have probably guessed that, but considering the lack of light, it was entirely possible that he had overlooked her. Hammer in hand and legs dangling from her seat on a ledge about ten feet up, she smiled at him with a wave.

"I think I found something up here!" Standing once more, legs seemed to plant into the rock to keep her balance. "Like a secret entrance or something."

A swish of the tails and he was airborne, by her side in seconds as he strained his eyes for a closer look. Sure enough, there it was: a stone opening, about the size of that air vent that he and Sonic had crawled through, when he had demanded he tag along to Robotropolis. There wasn't much to go by, but he thought he saw-

"Is that another room?"

"Looks like it. Wanna see where it goes?"

"Amy, Maybe I should look around first, see if that's a goo-"

"Great!" To his chagrin, she was already halfway through the hole, with only her legs sticking out. "Then you go check it out, I'll go in here..."

"Amy, wait!"

A small sound in the back of Amy's throat, the stiffening of her legs. Her hammer flew through the hole and her legs along with it, hardly giving the fox time to react.

"Amy?" He called. "Amy, what—"

"Get in here!" She must have already been well on the other side, because the muffle made him strain his ears to hear.

"But-"

"There's _someone here! _Hurry!"

The fox couldn't go through that hole fast enough.

-0-

**Time: **Present Day, 1:53 PM.

**Place: **Angel Island, Marble Garden Zone.

-0-

Monsieur Red Guy was _scary_. And _mean_, too! Even as she told her story, being perfectly honest like her Papa always taught her to be, his violet eyes were nothing but slits, foot tapping and knuckled hand resting on his hip. Those knuckle-things were coming out pretty far, too...did they hurt? They must have, though he didn't seem to mention anything...

Well, maybe that's why he was so grumpy and said bad words? Because his hands hurt and that would be a perfectly reasonable explanation (isn't that how Tails would have put it? He and Amy always used big words, even when Cream didn't understand them all that well) for being like that. Cheese had said that he wasn't a bad person, so it had to be true...

Cream didn't want to cry. Honest, she didn't. She tried to hold back her tears, not hiccup and be grown-up and everything! She'd cried before, but crying was for little kids, and in a bad situation, Sonic and Sally didn't cry! Why, Tails didn't cry, and he was even in the same room with creepy ol' Robotnik!

But still, she'd cried in front of Monsieur Red Guy and still cried now, and she could feel the tears spill down her cheeks as she tried her best to recount every detail...

"A-and the pole was thin with a pretty little bulb at the end, tall like those bouncy mushrooms that I played on with Cheese! Except those were fun and not scary, and looked like trees. And um...um..."

Don't pay attention to his face, don't pay attention to his face! Keep focused on the story! Don't cry!

"Ummm...the circle had a big star on it, and it was shining a lot, just like Tails's glowy rock."

"Any particular reason why it was glowing?"

He didn't sound mad. Maybe that was a good thing?

"Um. Um. I don't know." She sniffled. "B-but Tails's rock was glowing and it was glowing, and Amy said it didn't look like this when she saw it last time, so that must mean that it was differe-"

"Ugh, _get to the point_!"

Oh, he was mad now! He glared at her and talked in a scary voice and everything!

"Don't yell at me!" Oh, that was it. She was crying now. Hard, too, with her ears covering her eyes and everything! So much for being adult.

"[Yeah!]" She could feel Cheese sit on her shoulder—his little hands grabbing on one of her ears. "[Stop yelling at her!]"

A sigh. Was that coming from the Red Guy? It didn't sound like Cheese. She wanted to look, but thought better of it, hiccuping tears and using her ears in an attempt to wipe her eyes dry.

...What? It was more polite than using her skirt!

That's when she heard it—a small mumble.

Was it okay to peek out? Who'd said that?

Her ears moved to the side slightly, and large eyes tried to get a good view from the other side. It was better to not look like she was really looking, after all-

...but why was Monsieur Red Guy's face turned to the side, just a little bit? He didn't look mad now, just...

Something else. But not mad—that much she was sure of.

"Um..."

He cleared his throat, though his voice came out in a gravelly whisper:

"I said I was sorry."

He was apologizing...? Though why did it sound like it hurt him to say it? Did his Mom and Dad not tell him that saying 'sorry' was important when he was mean?

Ears moved all the way to the side, and Cream's eyes finally met his.

So he was nice, after all?

"It's okay! You're just in a grumpy mood. I understand that! Papa gets in a grumpy mood sometimes, and _he_ yells, too."

"Uh-huh. Yeah—let's go with that." A shuffle of the feet, and another glance away, almost like he wanted to look at everything else _but_ her. "So."

"So?" She blinked.

"What happened next?"

"Oh!" She bounced back a small bit, and let her ears flop back. "Um. Amy told us that it was a 'Star Post', and that it was supposed to help dead people or something. Do dead people need help finding their way if they're lost? I guess they do, since Papa said that they all live somewhere far away. It must be hard to get there. And then Tails decided that he wanted to touch it, even though _that_ was _reeeeaaaaally_ dangerous, and then this _bright_ light appeared and we all started screaming, and that's all."

"...Wait. What do you mean, that's all? So you touched it, and you ended up here?"

"Uh-huh! I woke up in that place with the bouncy mushrooms, and then I met Cheese, and _he_ told me that you'd be able to help me find my friends, so we went looking for you!"

"...You looked for me."

"Uh-huh." Why was that so hard to believe? Was something wrong with looking for him?

"[But we wouldn'ta if we'd known you'd be so _mean_!]" Cheese crossed his arms, only to earn a light tap from Cream.

"Cheese!" She scolded, "That's not nice!"

"[But he—]"

Cream cut him off with a glare. "Say you're sorry!"

"[But...!]"

"..." She tapped her foot and waited; she thought she heard someone snicker, but that had to be her imagination.

"[Okaaaaaaaaaaaaay.]" Cheese stared down towards his feet. "[I'm _sorry_.]"

"Good." With a nod, her gaze returned to her other companion. The one who seemed so scary before...but maybe he wasn't so bad. He did apologize, and he didn't seem to want to hurt her. Maybe he really _was_ just grumpy? "So does this mean you'll help us?"

"Wait, _what_?"

Did he not understand? Cream spoke louder: "Does this mean that you'll help us find my friends?"

He winced, putting a finger in his ear and stepping backwards. "Agh! Chaos, you don't have to yell! I heard you the first time!"

"S-sorry!" Oh, dear, there she went, being rude again. Papa would be so mad if he saw her acting like this! Surely he would been much better spoken about it, if he was here. "So you'll help us?"

"I don't remember saying anything about that."

"But I answered your questions!"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I answered your questions and told you how I got here and that my friends are missing, and so you should do something _I_ ask, it's only fair!"

He shook his head. "And life isn't fair, kid."

"Well, it should be!" Cream shot back.

"But it isn't, and it doesn't mean that I am obligated to help you find anyone. For all I know, you could have just made that up."

"But I _didn't_ make it up! I really can't find my friends, and I didn't say you were obligamated to help me! ...What does that mean, anyway?"

"That I have to."

"...Oh. Well, shouldn't you? Cheese said that you'd help me, and that you know a lot of stuff."

He shook his head, and crossed his arms. "What's that got to do with anything? Look, kid, there's a way to get the hell-"

"Bad word!"

"..._heck_ off this island, and I'll see you out. But I'm _not_ going to play babysitter and drag you around any further than that."

"Why not? I just want to find my friends."

"And I'm sure I'll find them eventually. But not with _you_."

If he wasn't going to help her, then she had no choice. Cheese said he would help, and he wasn't. What did he have to do that was so important that he couldn't help her, anyway? What if Tails and Amy were hurt, or monsters got them? Wouldn't he care?

Her ears weren't hurting anymore, and her body could handle another jump.

All she needed was a running start-

-but so much for that plan. Monsieur Red Guy had her under the crook of an arm in an instant. Cheese let out a chirp of irritation and pulled on her skirt, but it didn't seem to faze him one bit.

"...And I won't go for you running away, either. You're getting off this island, and there will be no arguments."

"Okay..."

...It didn't seem like arguing was going to do anything. All she could hope was that she somehow found Tails and Amy before they got there...

Or somehow convinced him of the imminent monster threat before then. Whichever came first.


End file.
